He had now a very comfortable hewed-log residence, well
furnished with such articles as were common with the better class
of white settlers at that time, many of them, however, made by
himself.
Before he reached his thirty-fifth year he became addicted to
convivial habits to an extent that injured his business, and began
to cripple his resources. Unlike most of his race, however, he did
not become wildly excited when under the influence of liquor.
Se-quo-yah, who never saw his father, and never could utter a word
of the German tongue, still carried, deep in his nature, an odd
compound of Indian and German transcendentalism; essentially
Indian in opinion and prejudice, but German in instinct and
thought. A little liquor only mellowed him--it thawed away the
last remnant of Indian reticence. He talked with his associates
upon all the knotty questions of law, art, and religion. Indian
Theism and Pantheism were measured against the Gospel as taught by
the land-seeking, fur-buying adventurers. A good class of
missionaries had, indeed, entered the Cherokee Nation; but the
shrewd Se-quo-yah, and the disciples this stoic taught among his
mountains, had just sense enough to weigh the good and the bad
together, and strike an impartial balance as the footing up for
this new proselyting race.
It has been erroneously alleged that Se-quo-yah was a believer in,
or practiced, the old Indian religious rites.
Pages:
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30