The savages of North America, Franklin’s beliefs are that they are less savage and more hospitable than us. One of the hallmarks of civilization is hospitality. You go into an Indian village and they roll out the red carpet for us. An Indian comes into our town, they can freeze to death on the street if they don’t have some money to pay for a room. All of these cheap Yankees want money.
Page 220 "A Swedish minister, having assembled the chiefs of the Susquehannah Indians, made a sermon to them, acquainting them with the principal historical facts on which our religion is founded; such as the fall of our first parents by eating an apple, the coming of Christ to repair the mischief, His miracles and suffering, etc. When he had finished, an Indian orator stood up to thank him. ‘What you have told us,’ he says, ‘is all very good. It is indeed bad to eat apples. It is better to make them all into cider. We are mush obligated by your kindness in coming so far, to tell us these things which you have heard from your mothers. In return, I will tell you something from ours. In the beginning, our fathers had only the flesh of animals to subsist on; and if their hunting was unsuccessful, they were starving. Two of our young hunters, having killed a deer, made a fire in the woods to broil some part of it."He is telling them about hospitality and the origin of hospitality."When they were about to satisfy their hunger, they beheld a beautiful young woman descend from the clouds, and seat herself on that hill, which you see yonder among the blue mountains. They said to each other, it is a spirit that gas smelled our broiling vension. and wishes to eat of it; let us offer some to her."They gave her something to eat, then they came back a year latter and they"found plants that they had never seen before; but which, from that ancient time, have been constantly cultivated among us, to our great advantage."Civilization first arises in the form of agriculture. The native American sees this as the connection between his system of beliefs & that of the missionary, who tells them stories of gardens and fruits."Where her right hand had touched the ground, they found maize; where her left hand had touched it, they found kidney-beans; and where her backside had sat on it, they found tobacco.’ The good missionary, disgusted with this idle tale, said, ‘What I delivered to you were sacred truths; but what you tell me is mere fable, fiction, and falsehood.’The Indian tells him that he is rude, but he says it in a nice way because he is civilized.The Indian, offended, replied; My brother, it seems your friends have not done you justice in your education; they have not well instructed you in the rules of common civility." "You saw that we, who understand and practice those rules, believed all you storied, why do you refuse to believe ours?"
Edited by Group 1, English 303-02 Winter Quarter 1998