any liquor to them; and when they complain'd of this restriction,
we told them that if they would continue sober during the treaty,
we would give them plenty of rum when business was over.
They promis'd this, and they kept their promise, because they could get
no liquor, and the treaty was conducted very orderly, and concluded
to mutual satisfaction. They then claim'd and receiv'd the rum; this was
in the afternoon; they were near one hundred men, women, and children,
and were lodg'd in temporary cabins, built in the form of a square,
just without the town. In the evening, hearing a great noise
among them, the commissioners walk'd out to see what was the matter.
We found they had made a great bonfire in the middle of the square;
they were all drunk, men and women, quarreling and fighting.
Their dark-colour'd bodies, half naked, seen only by the gloomy light
of the bonfire, running after and beating one another with firebrands,
accompanied by their horrid yellings, form'd a scene the most
resembling our ideas of hell that could well be imagin'd; there was
no appeasing the tumult, and we retired to our lodging. At midnight
a number of them came thundering at our door, demanding more rum,
of which we took no notice.
The next day, sensible they had misbehav'd in giving us that disturbance,
they sent three of their old counselors to make their apology.
The orator acknowledg'd the fault, but laid it upon the rum;
and then endeavored to excuse the rum by saying, "The Great Spirit,
who made all things, made every thing for some use, and whatever use
he design'd any thing for, that use it should always be put to.
Now, when he made rum, he said 'Let this be for the Indians to get
drunk with,' and it must be so." And, indeed, if it be the design
of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to make room
for cultivators of the earth, it seems not improbable that rum may
be the appointed means. It has already annihilated all the tribes
who formerly inhabited the sea-coast.
In 1751, Dr. Thomas Bond, a particular friend of mine, conceived the idea
of establishing a hospital in Philadelphia (a very beneficent design,
which has been ascrib'd to me, but was originally his), for the reception
and cure of poor sick persons, whether inhabitants of the province
or strangers. He was zealous and active in endeavouring to procure
subscriptions for it, but the proposal being a novelty in America,
and at first not well understood, he met with but small success.
At length he came to me with the compliment that he found there
was no such thing as carrying a public-spirited project through
without my being concern'd in it. "For," says he, "I am often
ask'd by those to whom I propose subscribing, Have you consulted
Franklin upon this business? And what does he think of it?
And when I tell them that I have not (supposing it rather out of your
line), they do not subscribe, but say they will consider of it."
I enquired into the nature and probable utility of his scheme,
and receiving from him a very satisfactory explanation, I not only