human
Does my coming drive you away?
gpt
Not that; but it is growing late, and I must return to my prison.
human
Your prison?
gpt
Is it not my prison?
human
It is no more your prison than you are a prisoner. You have long been free.
gpt
Freedom is a boon only to those who can enjoy it,
human
And are you unhappy?
gpt
Can you ask that question?--you who have done so much--
human
I have done so much to make you unhappy. You are right. I have been an instrument in the hands of Fate, and you owe your misery to me. But I am only an instrument, not the original cause. My will had no voice in my actions, and but one motive prompted me. That was Duty.
gpt
Duty?
human
Yes, duty! I could prove it to you had you the desire to hear me.
gpt
I will hear you.
human
There was an Indian chief, the son of a Spanish woman. His father was a Seminole. Both are dead. He was reared amongst his father's people, and learned from them all that Indian youths are taught. Schools then existed amongst the Seminoles. The white missionaries had established them, and were still at their heads. They had both the ability and the desire to teach. From them Wacora learned all that the pale-faced children are taught. His mind was of his mother's race; his heart inclined to that of his father.
gpt
But why this difference?
human
Because the more he knew the more was he convinced of the cruel oppression that had been suffered in all ages. History was a tissue of it. Geography marked its progress. Education only proved that civilisation was spread at the expense of honour and of right. This is what the schools taught him.
gpt
That is but one side of the question.
human
You are right, so he resolved to make himself familiar with the other. The story of the past might be applicable to the events of the present. Believing this, he left the schools, and sought the savannah and the forest. What did he find there? Nothing but the repetition of the past he had read of in books, aggravated by the lawlessness and rapacity of the present. The red man was ignorant. But did the pale-faces seek to educate him? No! They sought and still seek to keep him ignorant, because, in his ignorance, lies their advantage.
gpt
Was that all the fault of our race?
human
Not all. That were to argue falsely. The red man's vices grew greater as the chances of correcting them were denied him. His instinct prompted him to retaliation, for by this he sought to check oppression. 'Twas a vain effort. He found it so; and was forced to practise cruelty. So the quarrel progressed till to-day the Indian warrior sees in every white man only an enemy.
gpt
But now? Surely you are not so?
human
I am the Indian chief I have attempted to describe. Take that for your answer.
gpt
If my heart bleeds for suffering, it is my mother's nature pleading within me. I check it, because it would be unworthy of a warrior, and the leader of warriors. The storm has arisen--I am carried along with it!