Books: Letters from an American Farmer

H >> Hector St. John de Crevecoeur >> Letters from an American Farmer

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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. I will read and expound to them some
part of the decalogue, which is the method I have pursued ever since
I married.

Half a dozen of acres on the shores of---, the soil of which I know
well, will yield us a great abundance of all we want; I will make it
a point to give the over-plus to such Indians as shall be most
unfortunate in their huntings; I will persuade them, if I can, to
till a little more land than they do, and not to trust so much to
the produce of the chase. To encourage them still farther, I will
give a quirn to every six families; I have built many for our poor
back settlers, it being often the want of mills which prevents them
from raising grain. As I am a carpenter, I can build my own plough,
and can be of great service to many of them; my example alone, may
rouse the industry of some, and serve to direct others in their
labours. The difficulties of the language will soon be removed; in
my evening conversations, I will endeavour to make them regulate the
trade of their village in such a manner as that those pests of the
continent, those Indian traders, may not come within a certain
distance; and there they shall be obliged to transact their business
before the old people. I am in hopes that the constant respect which
is paid to the elders, and shame, may prevent the young hunters from
infringing this regulation. The son of----will soon be made
acquainted with our schemes, and I trust that the power of love, and
the strong attachment he professes for my daughter, may bring him
along with us: he will make an excellent hunter; young and vigorous,
he will equal in dexterity the stoutest man in the village. Had it
not been for this fortunate circumstance, there would have been the
greatest danger; for however I respect the simple, the inoffensive
society of these people in their villages, the strongest prejudices
would make me abhor any alliance with them in blood: disagreeable no
doubt, to nature's intentions which have strongly divided us by so
many indelible characters. In the days of our sickness, we shall
have recourse to their medical knowledge, which is well calculated
for the simple diseases to which they are subject. Thus shall we
metamorphose ourselves, from neat, decent, opulent planters,
surrounded with every conveniency which our external labour and
internal industry could give, into a still simpler people divested
of everything beside hope, food, and the raiment of the woods:
abandoning the large framed house, to dwell under the wigwam; and
the featherbed, to lie on the mat, or bear's skin. There shall we
sleep undisturbed by fruitful dreams and apprehensions; rest and
peace of mind will make us the most ample amends for what we shall
leave behind. These blessings cannot be purchased too dear; too long
have we been deprived of them. I would cheerfully go even to the
Mississippi, to find that repose to which we have been so long
strangers. My heart sometimes seems tired with beating, it wants
rest like my eye-lids, which feel oppressed with so many watchings.

These are the component parts of my scheme, the success of each of
which appears feasible; from whence I flatter myself with the
probable success of the whole. Still the danger of Indian education
returns to my mind, and alarms me much; then again I contrast it
with the education of the times; both appear to be equally pregnant
with evils. Reason points out the necessity of choosing the least
dangerous, which I must consider as the only good within my reach; I
persuade myself that industry and labour will be a sovereign
preservative against the dangers of the former; but I consider, at
the same time, that the share of labour and industry which is
intended to procure but a simple subsistence, with hardly any
superfluity, cannot have the same restrictive effects on our minds
as when we tilled the earth on a more extensive scale. The surplus
could be then realised into solid wealth, and at the same time that
this realisation rewarded our past labours, it engrossed and fixed
the attention of the labourer, and cherished in his mind the hope of
future riches. In order to supply this great deficiency of
industrious motives, and to hold out to them a real object to
prevent the fatal consequences of this sort of apathy; I will keep
an exact account of all that shall be gathered, and give each of
them a regular credit for the amount of it to be paid them in real
property at the return of peace. Thus, though seemingly toiling for
bare subsistence on a foreign land, they shall entertain the
pleasing prospect of seeing the sum of their labours one day
realised either in legacies or gifts, equal if not superior to it.
The yearly expense of the clothes which they would have received at
home, and of which they will then be deprived, shall likewise be
added to their credit; thus I flatter myself that they will more
cheerfully wear the blanket, the matchcoat, and the Moccasins.
Whatever success they may meet with in hunting or fishing, shall
only be considered as recreation and pastime; I shall thereby
prevent them from estimating their skill in the chase as an
important and necessary accomplishment. I mean to say to them: "You
shall hunt and fish merely to show your new companions that you are
not inferior to them in point of sagacity and dexterity." Were I to
send them to such schools as the interior parts of our settlements
afford at present, what can they learn there? How could I support
them there? What must become of me; am I to proceed on my voyage,
and leave them? That I never could submit to. Instead of the
perpetual discordant noise of disputes so common among us, instead
of those scolding scenes, frequent in every house, they will observe
nothing but silence at home and abroad: a singular appearance of
peace and concord are the first characteristics which strike you in
the villages of these people. Nothing can be more pleasing, nothing
surprises an European so much as the silence and harmony which
prevails among them, and in each family; except when disturbed by
that accursed spirit given them by the wood rangers in exchange for
their furs. If my children learn nothing of geometrical rules, the
use of the compass, or of the Latin tongue, they will learn and
practise sobriety, for rum can no longer be sent to these people;
they will learn that modesty and diffidence for which the young
Indians are so remarkable; they will consider labour as the most
essential qualification; hunting as the second. They will prepare
themselves in the prosecution of our small rural schemes, carried on
for the benefit of our little community, to extend them further when
each shall receive his inheritance. Their tender minds will cease to
be agitated by perpetual alarms; to be made cowards by continual
terrors: if they acquire in the village of---, such an awkwardness
of deportment and appearance as would render them ridiculous in our
gay capitals, they will imbibe, I hope, a confirmed taste for that
simplicity, which so well becomes the cultivators of the land. If I
cannot teach them any of those professions which sometimes embellish
and support our society, I will show them how to hew wood, how to
construct their own ploughs; and with a few tools how to supply
themselves with every necessary implement, both in the house and in
the field. If they are hereafter obliged to confess, that they
belong to no one particular church, I shall have the consolation of
teaching them that great, that primary worship which is the
foundation of all others. If they do not fear God according to the
tenets of any one seminary, they shall learn to worship him upon the
broad scale of nature. The Supreme Being does not reside in peculiar
churches or communities; he is equally the great Manitou of the
woods and of the plains; and even in the gloom, the obscurity of
those very woods, his justice may be as well understood and felt as
in the most sumptuous temples. Each worship with us, hath, you know,
its peculiar political tendency; there it has none but to inspire
gratitude and truth: their tender minds shall receive no other idea
of the Supreme Being, than that of the father of all men, who
requires nothing more of us than what tends to make each other
happy. We shall say with them, Soungwaneha, esa caurounkyawga,
nughwonshauza neattewek, nesalanga.--Our father, be thy will done in
earth as it is in great heaven.

Perhaps my imagination gilds too strongly this distant prospect; yet
it appears founded on so few, and simple principles, that there is
not the same probability of adverse incidents as in more complex
schemes. These vague rambling contemplations which I here faithfully
retrace, carry me sometimes to a great distance; I am lost in the
anticipation of the various circumstances attending this proposed
metamorphosis! Many unforeseen accidents may doubtless arise. Alas!
it is easier for me in all the glow of paternal anxiety, reclined on
my bed, to form the theory of my future conduct, than to reduce my
schemes into practice. But when once secluded from the great society
to which we now belong, we shall unite closer together; and there
will be less room for jealousies or contentions. As I intend my
children neither for the law nor the church, but for the cultivation
of the land, I wish them no literary accomplishments; I pray heaven
that they may be one day nothing more than expert scholars in
husbandry: this is the science which made our continent to flourish
more rapidly than any other. Were they to grow up where I am now
situated, even admitting that we were in safety; two of them are
verging toward that period in their lives, when they must
necessarily take up the musket, and learn, in that new school, all
the vices which are so common in armies. Great God! close my eyes
for ever, rather than I should live to see this calamity! May they
rather become inhabitants of the woods.

Thus then in the village of---, in the bosom of that peace it has
enjoyed ever since I have known it, connected with mild hospitable
people, strangers to OUR political disputes, and having none among
themselves; on the shores of a fine river, surrounded with woods,
abounding with game; our little society united in perfect harmony
with the new adoptive one, in which we shall be incorporated, shall
rest I hope from all fatigues, from all apprehensions, from our
perfect terrors, and from our long watchings. Not a word of politics
shall cloud our simple conversation; tired either with the chase or
the labour of the field, we shall sleep on our mats without any
distressing want, having learnt to retrench every superfluous one:
we shall have but two prayers to make to the Supreme Being, that he
may shed his fertilising dew on our little crops, and that he will
be pleased to restore peace to our unhappy country. These shall be
the only subject of our nightly prayers, and of our daily
ejaculations: and if the labour, the industry, the frugality, the
union of men, can be an agreeable offering to him, we shall not fail
to receive his paternal blessings. There I shall contemplate nature
in her most wild and ample extent; I shall carefully study a species
of society, of which I have at present but very imperfect ideas; I
will endeavour to occupy with propriety that place which will enable
me to enjoy the few and sufficient benefits it confers. The solitary
and unconnected mode of life I have lived in my youth must fit me
for this trial, I am not the first who has attempted it; Europeans
did not, it is true, carry to the wilderness numerous families; they
went there as mere speculators; I, as a man seeking a refuge from
the desolation of war. They went there to study the manner of the
aborigines; I to conform to them, whatever they are; some went as
visitors, as travellers; I as a sojourner, as a fellow hunter and
labourer, go determined industriously to work up among them such a
system of happiness as may be adequate to my future situation, and
may be a sufficient compensation for all my fatigues and for the
misfortunes I have borne: I have always found it at home, I may hope
likewise to find it under the humble roof of my wigwam.

O Supreme Being! if among the immense variety of planets, inhabited
by thy creative power, thy paternal and omnipotent care deigns to
extend to all the individuals they contain; if it be not beneath thy
infinite dignity to cast thy eye on us wretched mortals; if my
future felicity is not contrary to the necessary effects of those
secret causes which thou hast appointed, receive the supplications
of a man, to whom in thy kindness thou hast given a wife and an
offspring: View us all with benignity, sanctify this strong conflict
of regrets, wishes, and other natural passions; guide our steps
through these unknown paths, and bless our future mode of life. If
it is good and well meant, it must proceed from thee; thou knowest,
O Lord, our enterprise contains neither fraud, nor malice, nor
revenge. Bestow on me that energy of conduct now become so
necessary, that it may be in my power to carry the young family thou
hast given me through this great trial with safety and in thy peace.
Inspire me with such intentions and such rules of conduct as may be
most acceptable to thee. Preserve, O God, preserve the companion of
my bosom, the best gift thou hast given me: endue her with courage
and strength sufficient to accomplish this perilous journey. Bless
the children of our love, those portions of our hearts; I implore
thy divine assistance, speak to their tender minds, and inspire them
with the love of that virtue which alone can serve as the basis of
their conduct in this world, and of their happiness with thee.
Restore peace and concord to our poor afflicted country; assuage the
fierce storm which has so long ravaged it. Permit, I beseech thee, O
Father of nature, that our ancient virtues, and our industry, may
not be totally lost: and that as a reward for the great toils we
have made on this new land, we may be restored to our ancient
tranquillity, and enabled to fill it with successive generations,
that will constantly thank thee for the ample subsistence thou hast
given them.

The unreserved manner in which I have written must give you a
convincing proof of that friendship and esteem, of which I am sure
you never yet doubted. As members of the same society, as mutually
bound by the ties of affection and old acquaintance, you certainly
cannot avoid feeling for my distresses; you cannot avoid mourning
with me over that load of physical and moral evil with which we are
all oppressed. My own share of it I often overlook when I minutely
contemplate all that hath befallen our native country.

The End

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