The wearied hunter had fire-water given him as an excitement to
drown the cares common to white and red. Slowly the polity,
customs, industries, morals, religion, and character of the red
race were consumed in this terrible furnace of avarice. The
foundations of our early aristocracies were laid. Byrd, in his
"History of the Dividing Line," tells us that a school of seventy-
seven Indian children existed in 1720, and that they could all
read and write English; but adds, that the jealousy of traders and
land speculators, who feared it would interfere with their
business, caused it to be closed. Alas! this people had
encountered the iron nerve of Christianity, without reaping the
fruit of its intelligence or mercy.
Silver, although occasionally found among the North American
Indians, was very rare previous to the European conquest.
Afterward, among the commodities offered, were the broad silver
pieces of the Spaniards, and the old French and English silver
coins. With the most mobile spirit the Indian at once took them.
He used them as he used his shell-beads, for money and ornament.
Native artificers were common in all the tribes. The silver was
beaten into rings, and broad ornamented silver bands for the head.
Handsome breast-plates were made of it; necklaces, bells for the
ankles, and rings for the toes.
It is not wonderful that Se-quo-yah's mechanical genius led him
into the highest branch of art known to his people, and that he
became their greatest silversmith.
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