Lahontan,
Excerpts from Dialogues with Kondiaronk (1703)
Louis Armand de Lom d’Arce, baron
de Lahontan (1666-1716)
was a French aristocrat and soldier who spent several years
traveling in the colony New France (Canada). He had frequent
contacts with the indigenous peoples of the region and in 1703
published his account of his experiences, New Voyages
to North America. The
second volume featured a series of dialogues between Lahontan
and Kondiaronk (c. 1649-1701, called “Adario” in the
book), a Huron political leader, in which they two men discussed
their views of their respective societies. Kondiaronk is
portrayed as having visited France and as being sharply critical
of the society which he
observed there. While there is no other evidence that Kondiaronk
ever traveled to Europe or expressed the precise opinions
described by Lahontan, he had reputation as for intelligence and eloquence, and we know that several other
indigenous people did cross the Atlantic during this era.
Lahontan….But in regard to the good of the
society consists in doing justice and following these laws,
there’s the necessity of punishing the wicked and rewarding the
good; for without that precaution murders, robberies and
defamations would spread everywhere, and in a word, we should be
the most miserable people upon the face of the earth.
Adario. Nay, you are miserable enough already, and indeed
I can’t see how you can be more such. What sort of men must the
Europeans be? What species of creatures do they retain to? The
Europeans, who must be forced to do good and have no other
prompter for the avoiding of evil than the fear of punishment.
If I asked you, what a man is, you would answer me, He’s a
Frenchman, and yet I’ll prove that your man is rather a beaver.
For man is not entitled to that character upon the score of his
walking upright upon two legs, or of reading and writing, and
showing a thousand other instances of his industry. I call that
creature a man, that has a natural inclination to do good, and
never entertains thoughts thoughts of doing evil.
You see we have no judges; and what’s the reason of that? Why?
We neither quarrel nor sue one another. And what’s the reason we
have no law suits? Why? Because we are resolved to neither to
receive nor to know silver. But why do we refuse admission to
silver among us? The reason is this-- we are resolved to have no
laws, for since the world was a world our ancestors lived
happily without them. In fine, as I intimated before, the word
laws does not signify just and reasonable things as you use it,
for the rich make a jest of them and it is only the poor
wretches that pay any regard to them.
But, pray, let’s look into these laws, as you call them. For
these fifty years, the governors of Canada have still alleged
that we are subject to the laws of their great captain. We
content ourselves in denying all manner of dependence, excepting
that upon the Great Spirit, as being born free and join
brethren, who are all equally masters; whereas you are all
slaves to one man. We do not put in any such answer to you, as
if the French depended upon us; and the reason of out silence
upon that head is that we have no mind to quarrel.
But, pray tell me, what authority or right is the pretended
superiority of your great captain grounded upon? Did we ever
sell ourselves to the great captain? Were we ever in France to
look after you? It is you that came hither to find out us. Who
you all the countries that you now inhabit, and by what right to
you possess them? They always belonged to the Algonquins before. In earnest, my dear brother. I’m sorry for
you from the bottom of my soul.
Take my advice and turn Huron; for I see plainly a vast
difference between your condition and mine. I am master of my
own body, I have absolute disposal of myself, I do what I
please, I am the first and last of my own nation, I fear no man,
and I depend only on the Great Spirit; whereas your body, as
well as your soul, are doomed to a dependence upon your great
captain; your viceroy disposes of you; you have not the liberty
of doing what you have a mind to, you are afraid of robbers,
false witnesses, assassins, etc., and you depend upon an
infinity of persons whose places have raised them above you.
It is true, is it not? Are these things either improbable or
invisible? Ah! My dear brother, you see plainly that I am in the
right of it and yet you chose rather to be a French slave than a
free Huron. What a fine spark does a Frenchman make with his
fine laws, who taking himself to be mighty wise is assuredly a
great fool; for as much as he continues in slavery and a state
of dependence, while the very brutes enjoy that adorable
liberty, and like us fear nothing but foreign enemies.
***
Lahontan. I gave you to
know before that you ought not to give credit to all that every
fool whispers in your ear. You give ear to some blockheads that
have not a tincture of common sense, and that spread lies under
the notion of half truths. These bad judges, that they speak of,
are as uncommon as white beavers; for it is a question if there
are four such judges in all France. Our judges are men that love
virtue, and have souls to be saved as well as you and I; and
being invested with a public capacity, they are to answer to the
conduct before a judge who had no respect to persons, and before
whom the greatest monarch is no more than a slave. There’s
scarce any of these men, who would not choose to die, rather
than wound their conscience or violate the laws. Money is too
base a metal to tempt them, and women warm them no more than
ice. Friends and great lords make less impression upon their
minds, than the waves upon the rocks. They curb libertinism, the
redress disorders, and do justice to all that sue for it;
without the least regard to what we call interest.
As for my own part, I have lost my whole estate by being
cast in three or four law-suits at Paris; but I would be loath
to believe that the judges are at fault, notwithstanding that my adversaries found
both money and friends to back bad causes. It was the law that
gave it against me, and I take the law to be just and
reasonable, imputing my surprise upon the matter, to my
unacquaintedness with that study.
Adario. I protest I don’t understand one word
of what you have said; for I know contrary of what you say to be
true, and those who informed me so of the judges are men of
honor and sense. But if nobody had given me any such
information, I am not so dull-headed as not to see with my own
eyes, the injustice of your laws and your judges. I’ll tell you
one thing my dear brother; I was going one day from Paris to
Versailles, and about half way, I met a boor that was going to
be whipped for having taken partridges and hares with traps.
Between Rochel and Paris, I saw another that was condemned to
the galleys for having a little bag of salt about him.
These poor men were punished by your unjust laws for endeavoring
to get sustenance to their families; at a time when a million
women were got with child in the absence of their husbands, when
the physicians murdered three fourths of the people, and the
gamesters reduced their families to a starving condition, by
losing all they had in the world; and all this with impunity. If
things go at this rate, where are your just and reasonable laws;
where are those judges that have a soul to be saved as well as
you or I? After this, you’ll be ready to brand the Hurons for
beasts. In earnest, we should have a fine time of it if we
offered to punish one of our brethren for killing a hare or a
partridge; and a glorious fight it would be, to see our wives
enlarge the number of our children while we are engaged in
warlike expeditions against our enemies, to see physicians poison our families, and gamesters lose the
beaver skins they’ve gotten in hunting. In France, these things
are looked upon as trifles, which do not fall within the verge
of their fine laws. Doubtless, they must be very blind, that
they are acquainted with us, but do not imitate our example.
(Language and
orthography modernized somewhat from the original
translation).
Baron de Lahontan, New
Voyages to North America, translated
by Reuben Gold Thwaites, Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1905, pp. 552-555; 559-561