[2]    The detestable monster is not the Native American, it is us. For it is the white man that, like a bad dream, comes and invades the New World and scares the Native Americans into submission. The vagrant is the European who desperately wanders away from his home land until he finds a new land, 
which is a place to stay, but not necessarily a home. The imbecile is the man who accuses others of being an imbecile, when he knows little about the man, and less for what the man stands for. And Knickerbocker’s calling on the opinions of scholars such as Venegas, Bacon, and Ulloa furthers the white man’s imbecility. Not only does that show that the white man is incapable of thinking for himself, but it also shows that we have a limited range of scholars. Just like we are limited with our knowledge of  the Native American people.  
  

[3]    Our limit of knowledge of the Native American people is overflowing in the text. The Native Americans' simple and laid back lifestyle is a mark of contentment in the white man’s eyes. They have no excess desires, which, according to Knickerbocker, makes them animals not men. Their modest lifestyles are a sign of a sort of complacency as well, never striving for “wealth and all its advantages.’’ And who would expect them to be able to comprehend the value of wealth because their minds are like children, where the development of reason is incomplete. Chances of “fixing” them are slim. After all, they are not human, so they are unable to communicate on a human level. They’re just “dumb beasts.”   

[4]   These displays of ignorance are for a larger purpose of Knickerbocker’s ultimate ignorant stance that the Native Americans are so savage they have no right to the land. It is almost like the text is  a courtroom scene. Knickerbocker is the prosecuting lawyer, presenting “evidence” for the Natives not having rights to the New World or even to live. The Natives are the innocent victims being slandered, and we are the jury. 
 
 

[5]  We the jury soon find out that Knickerbocker’s senseless slandering and tearing down of the Native Americans  actually raises their value in our eyes. The accusations thrown against the Native Americans are so slanderous and outlandish that one can’t help feeling sorry for their position and feel disgust for the white man. Knickerbocker’s opinions are unfounded and untrue. Just because a man walks naked, does that make him uncivilized or less of a man? Does a man’s complacency make him a savage? These are all simple character judgments that show Knickerbocker’s ignorance toward the Native American culture.  
 
[6]  Granted, Knickerbocker, in defense of the white man, draws on important figures, European figures, to help his cause. He speaks of Ulloa, talking about the Natives’ imbecility. Bouguer speaks of the Natives’ complacency. Knickerbocker even draws on the church to help his position, with pious fathers comparing the Natives’ skin to the “colour of the Devil.” 

[7]  But we the jury are intelligent enough to know that for every Ulloa and Bouguer, there are four or five other scholars who support the Natives’ plight. And the “pious fathers” comparison to the devil is a ridiculously exaggerated accusation that even the sternest Native critics might find repulsive.  

[8]  This is in essence Irving’s technique in trying to rouse our emotions in approval of the Native Americans. Knickerbocker draws the most ridiculous assumptions about the Native Americans. These assumptions are so ridiculous that Irving hopes we see how ridiculous we have acted in dealing with the natives. Through the fictional character Knickerbocker, we are given fictional accusations. Accusations that make the European look like the bad guy he really is and make the Native American humane and entitled to the land--just like Irving intended.