A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner, Interpreter at the Saut de Ste, During Thirty Years Residence Among the Indians in the Interior of North America (Classic Reprint)

IâEI!. JonN TANNER, whose life and adventures are detailed in the following pages, is now ahout tilty years of age. His per :u is erect and rather rohust, indicating great hardiness, activit ,and strength, which, however, his numerous exposures and sutlerings have deeply impaired. His face, which was originally rather handsome, hears now numerous traces of thought and passion, as well as of age; his quick and piercing blue eyes, bespeak the stern, the violent, and uncouquerahle spirit, which rendered him an ohiect. of fear to many of the Indians while he remained among them, and which still, in some measure, dis qualities him hu that submissive and compliant manner which his dependent situation among the whites renders necessary. Carefully instructed iu early youtll, in all those principles and maxims which constitute the moral code of the unsophisticated and nncorrupted I ndian, his ideas of right and wrong, ol honourable and dishouourable, ditler, of course, very essentially from those of white men. His isolated .d friendless situation, in the midst ofa community where the right of private warfare is recognized as almost the only defence of individual possessions, the only barrier between man and man, was certainly in the highest degree unhivourable to the formation of that en during md patient suhmissivencss, which, in civilized societies, surrenders so great a share of individual rights t.o the strong guardianship of t.he law. A ccordingly, to a correct sense of natu al justice, he unites a full share of that indomitable and un tiring spirit of revenge, so prominent in the Indian character. lâhe circumstances into which he has been thrown, among a wild and lawless race, have taught him to consider himself. in all situations. the avenger of his own quarrel; and it, in the better regul.,2.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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