Note: A little French boy has hit an Indigenous person, and the French want him beaten as a punishment. The excerpt below describes the reaction of Native people. Who is more “civilized” in this story?

 

Excerpt:

“We bade the little boy come; when the Indians saw that we indeed intended to whip this small beater of Savages, and that switches had been made ready, they begged us to forgive him, saying that he was just a child and did not mean it, that he did not yet know what he did; but since we wanted to chastise him at all costs, one of the Natives undressed and threw his robe over the child, crying out to the one who wanted the boy beaten: hit me, if you wish, but you shall not hit him. That is how the poor little one avoided it.”

 

 

 

Source:
Alain BEAULIEU. Convertir les fils de Caïn : Jésuites et Amérindiens nomades en Nouvelle-France, 1632-1642, Québec, Nuit Blanche, 1990, p.72