Note 57 — Chapter I · Why I went to Great Salt Lake City.—The various Routes.—The Line of Country traversed.—Diaries and Disquisitions. (continued 3)
Reading edition
A United States official, fresh from Columbia, informed me that the Indians there think twice before they murder a King George’s man (Briton), while they hardly hesitate to kill a Boston man or American citizen. He attributed this peculiarity principally to the over lenity of his own government, and its want of persistency in ferreting out and punishing the criminal. Under these circumstances, it is hardly to be wondered at if the trader and traveler in Indian countries take the law in their own hands. This excessive clemency has acted evilly in “either Ind.” We may hope that its day is now gone by.