Laudator Temporis Acti

Thanks to Ian Jackson for drawing my attention to Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois 5.13 (tr. Thomas Nugent, rev. J.V. Prichard):

When the savages of Louisiana are desirous of fruit, they cut the tree to the root, and gather the fruit. This is an emblem of despotic government.

Quand les sauvages de la Louisiane veulent avoir du fruit, ils coupent l'arbre au pied, et cueillent le fruit. Voilà le gouvernement despotique.

Montesquieu cites as his source "Lettres édif. II. Recueil pag. 315." I can't find a copy of that edition, but I do find the following in Lettres édifiantes et curieuses écrites des missions étrangères, nouvelle édition, Mémoires d'Amérique, tome quatrième (Lyon: J. Vernarel etc., 1819), p. 201 (my rough translation):

Our savages aren't accustomed to gather fruit on trees; they think they do better to cut down the trees themselves; this is the reason why there are almost no fruit trees around the villages.

Nos Sauvages ne sont pas accoutumés à cueillir le fruit aux arbres; ils croient faire mieux d'abattre les arbres mêmes; ce qui est cause qu'il n'y a presque aucun arbre fruitier aux environs des villages.

More from Ian Jackson:

"Abattre" can of course mean to demolish or fell, but I note that my usual dictionary, Mansion's 4-volume Harrap, distinguishes such usages as abattre un boeuf ("to slaughter an ox") from abattre les fruits d'un arbre ("to knock down the fruit from a tree") — a far cry from toppling it, and more on the lines of "A dog, a woman, and a walnut tree / The more you beat them the better they be". But obviously if there are no fruit trees around the villages, they have indeed been cut down.

For a different picture of American Indian attitudes to arboricide, see I Like It Not.

Labels: arboricide