In a word, the bee-
hunter did not believe in the prudence of returning to the Openings,
but thought it by far the wisest for the whole party to make the
best of its way by water to the settlements. All this he urged
warmly on his white companions, taking them aside for that purpose,
and leaving Peter and Pigeonswing together while he did so.
But Parson Amen would as soon have believed that his old
congregation in Connecticut was composed of Philistines, as not to
believe that the red men were the lost tribes, and that Peter, in
particular, was not especially and elaborately described in the Old
Testament. He had become so thoroughly possessed by this crotchet as
to pervert everything that he saw, read, or heard, into evidence, of
some sort or other, of the truth of his notions. In this respect
there was nothing peculiar in the good missionary's weakness, it
being a failing common to partisans of a theory, to discover proofs
of its truths in a thousand things in which indifferent persons can
find even no connection with the subject at all. In this frame of
mind the missionary would as soon think of letting go his hold on
the Bible itself, as think of separating from an Indian who might
turn out any day to be a direct representative of Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob.
Pages:
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322