Chapter 3 - Page 2

unfrequently as a natural
enemy. As a matter of course, he was loud, clamorous, dogmatical and
not very argumentative. Deerslayer, on the other hand, manifested
a very different temper, proving by the moderation of his language,
the fairness of his views, and the simplicity of his distinctions,
that he possessed every disposition to hear reason, a strong, innate
desire to do justice, and an ingenuousness that was singularly
indisposed to have recourse to sophism to maintain an argument; or
to defend a prejudice. Still he was not altogether free from the
influence of the latter feeling. This tyrant of the human mind,
which ruses on it prey through a thousand avenues, almost as soon
as men begin to think and feel, and which seldom relinquishes its
iron sway until they cease to do either, had made some impression
on even the just propensities of this individual, who probably
offered in these particulars, a fair specimen of what absence from
bad example, the want of temptation to go wrong, and native good
feeling can render youth.

"You will allow, Deerslayer, that a Mingo is more than half devil,"
cried Hurry, following up the discussion with an animation that
touched closely on ferocity, "though you want to over-persuade me
that the Delaware tribe is pretty much made up of angels. Now, I
gainsay that proposal, consarning white men, even. All white men
are not faultless, and therefore all Indians can't be faultless.
And so your argument is out at the elbow in the start. But this is
what I call reason. Here's three colors on 'arth: white, black,
and red. White is the highest color, and therefore the best man;
black comes next, and is put to live in the neighborhood of the
white man, as tolerable, and fit to be made use of; and red comes
last, which shows that those that made 'em never expected an Indian
to be accounted as more than half human."

"God made all three alike, Hurry."

"Alike! Do you call a nigger like a white man, or me like an
Indian?"

"You go off at half-cock, and don't hear me out. God made us all,
white, black, and red; and, no doubt, had his own wise intentions
in coloring us differently. Still, he made us, in the main, much
the same in feelin's; though I'll not deny that he gave each race
its gifts. A white man's gifts are Christianized, while a red-skin's
are more for the wilderness. Thus, it would be a great offence
for a white man to scalp the dead; whereas it's a signal vartue
in an Indian. Then ag'in, a white man cannot amboosh women and
children in war, while a red-skin may. 'Tis cruel work, I'll
allow; but for them it's lawful work; while for us, it would be
grievous work."

"That depends on your