Note VIII-4 — Chapter VIII · ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.[VIII-1]

The punctuation of the last two sentences in the original left Pike's meaning obscure. It was by no means evident whether the language which he had used to the Indians held up to their minds a happy coincidence of circumstances which the traders helped to bring about before the Almighty interfered at all, or whether the happy coincidence of circumstances consisted in the endorsement of his language both by the traders and the Almighty. On the whole, I am inclined to think he meant that the speeches he made to the Indians whom he addressed directly were repeated and backed up by the traders among those Indians to whom he had no access; and that this was the happy coincidence of circumstances which enabled the Almighty to finish the business. But after all I am not quite confident that I catch his meaning. If I do, I must say that he is not very complimentary to the Deity, whose assistance he suspects may have been necessary to effect that which the traders and himself jointly attempted. For it seems from his further reflections on the subject that he thought God possibly equal to burying the hatchet between the Sioux and Chippewas, but hardly able to keep the peace without the assistance of the military and of a special agent. However, Pike was nothing if not a good soldier, and he had Napoleonic authority for supposing that God would always be found on the side of the heaviest artillery.