THE INDIAN OF THE NORTHWEST 19
had been be-deviled ten, yes even twenty, years before the fate of Astor's Tonquin; and some of our American traders whose names are now highly honored, were no whit less culpable than the slaughtering Promyshleniki, the coureurs des bois of the Russians.
When the Lewis and Clark expedition came below the Cas- cades, according to Whitehouse, 74 they found an Indian who could "curse some words in English." It is reasonably certain that this Indian had to learn English in order to do this curs- ing; for the natives had no language for taking the name of their god in vain. In fact, many of these early journalists could not make out definitely whether the Indians had any god at all. Of course this was due to the brevity of the observa- tions in many cases, and to the fact that Indians had no temples, no priests, no public worship in the usual sense. Most tribes went no further in naming their god than to call him the Good Spirit or even the Great Mystery; just as our greatest English philosopher has called God the Unknowable. Thompson, who was with the Indians longest and met as many new tribes intimately as any explorer not even excepting Vancouver, says that their religion was simple and natural, without sacrifices or superstitions. They acknowledged a Great Spirit who dwelt in the clouds to be the master of everything. Mackenzie 75 says that their religion was of a very contracted nature. Of the Bella Coolas 76 he says that they believed in two spirits, Good and Evil ; they tried to conciliate the one and avert the enmity of the other. Harmon 77 says of the neighboring Tacullies that they have a very confused and limited idea of the existence of a supreme being, but that they believe in the immortality of the soul. The Nootkas readily permitted Jewitt, 78 a prisoner from the plundered ship Boston, to worship his own god in his own way. He 79 says further that the Indians "believed in a Supreme Being, the Great Tyee of the sky." Lewis
74 Original Journals: Vol. VII., p. 187.
75 Voyages: Vol. II., p. 24.
76 Voyages: Vol. II., p. 313.
77 Journal: 293.
78 Adventures: Chapter IX.
79 Adventure*: p. at 6.
