DISPOSITIONS OF SAVAGE NATIONS. 



137 



they have committed ; and, from this polluted 

 source, they derive their greatest praise and hon 

 our. In Mingrelia , falsehood, assassination, and 

 theft, are good actions ; and whoredom, bigamy, 

 and incest, are esteemed as virtuous habits. 

 The men marry two or three wives at a time, 

 and keep as many concubines as they choose. 

 They not only make a common practice of sell 

 ing their children, either for gold, or in exchange 

 for wares and provisions, but even murder them, 

 or bury them alive, when they find it difficult to 

 bring them up.&quot; 



The Tartars, who occupy vast regions of the 

 Asiatic continent, are uniformly described by 

 travellers, as a rude, plundering, and uncultivated 

 race of men. &quot; There is something frightful,&quot; 

 says Smellie, &quot; in the countenances of the Cal- 

 Jiuck Tartars. All of them are wandering va 

 gabonds, and live in tents made of cloth or of 

 skins. They eat the flesh of horses, either raw, 

 or a little softened by putrifying under their 

 saddles. No marks of religion, or of decency in 

 their manners, are to be* found among most of 

 these tribes. They are fierce, warlike, hardy, 

 and brutally gross, They are all robbers ; and 

 the Tartars of Daghestan, who border on civiliz 

 ed nations, have a great trade in slaves, whom 

 they carry off by force, and sell to the Persians 

 and Turks.&quot;* 



The Arabians, like the Tartars, live mostly 

 without government, without law, and almost 

 without any social intercourse. They still con 

 tinue in a state of rudeness and of lawless inde 

 pendency. Their chiefs authorize rape, theft, 

 and robbery. They have no estimation for vir 

 tue, and glory in almost every species of vice. 

 They roam about in the deserts, and attack cara 

 vans and travellers of every description, whom 

 they frequently murder, and plunder of their pro 

 perty. The Chinese, though more highly civil 

 ized than the tribes now mentioned, and though 

 they merit great applause for their ingenuity, 

 industry, and perseverance, are as despicable in 

 their moral characters, and as destitute of true 

 benevolence, as almost any nation upon earth. 

 Avarice is their leading passion ; and in order 

 to gratify it, they practise every species of du 

 plicity and fraud. They cannot be influenced 

 by motives either of honesty or of humanity ; 

 and they surpass every nation on the globe &quot;in 

 private cheating. Captain Cook observes, that 

 (the danger of being hanged for any crime being 

 ev.ccpted) &quot; there is nothing, however infamous, 

 which the Chinese will refuse to do for gain.&quot; 

 In this opinion he concurs with every precedins 

 and subsequent writer, and confirms it by a 

 variety of striking proofs, of which an additional 

 number may be se&amp;lt;?n in the accounts which have 

 boen published of our late embassies to that 

 empire. 



Smellie s Philosophy of Natural History. 



The Birmans are a lively inquisitive race, 

 active, irascible, and impatient. While in peace, 

 they give proofs of a certain degree of gentleness 

 and civilization ; in war, they display the ferocity 

 of savages. The Malays, though inhabiting a 

 country beautiful and delightful in the extreme, 

 where refreshing gales and cooling streams as 

 suage the heat, where the soil teems with deli 

 cious fruits, where the trees are clothed with a 

 continual verdure, and the flowers breathe their 

 fragrant odours, are remarkably ferocious in their 

 manners. They go always armed (except the 

 slaves,) and would think themselves disgraced, 

 if they went abroad without their poignards. 

 The inland inhabitants of Malacca, called Mo- 

 nucaboes, are a barbarous savage people, delight 

 ing in doing continual mischief to their neigh 

 bours ; on which account, no grain is sown about 

 Malacca, but what is enclosed in gardens, with 

 the thickest hedges, or deep ditches ; for when 

 the grain is ripe in the open plains, the Monu- 

 caboes never fail to set fire to it. The Persians, 

 in their dispositions, says Mr. Franklin, are 

 much inclined to sudden anger, are quick, fiery, 

 and very sensible of affronts, which they resent 

 on the spot. Chardin describes them as &quot; war 

 like, vain, and ambitious of praise ; exceedingly 

 luxurious, prodigal, voluptuous, and addicted to 

 gallantry.&quot; It is well known that the wars and 

 fiend-like cruelties in which the despots of this 

 country have been engaged, have transformed 

 man} of its provinces into scenes of sterility and 

 desolation. The Hindoos are effeminate, luxuri 

 ous, and early initiated into the arts of dissimu 

 lation. They can caress those whom they hate, 

 and behave with the utmost affability and kind 

 ness to such as they intend to deprive of exist 

 ence, by the most sanguinary means. Though 

 they seldom scold or wrangle, they often stab 

 each other insidiously, and, without any public 

 quarrel, gratify a private revenge. The destruc 

 tion of infants, the immolation of widows, the 

 drowning of aged parents, which prevail among 

 them, and the cruel and idolatrous rites which 

 distinguish their religious services, are too well 

 known to require description. The Turks, 

 though grave, sedate, and rather hypocondriac, 

 yet when agitated by passion, are furious, raging, 

 ungovernable, fraught with dissimulation, jea 

 lous, suspicious, and vindictive beyond concep 

 tion. They are superstitious, and obstinately 

 tenacious in matters of religion, and are incapa-&amp;gt; 

 ble of exercising benevolence or even humanity 

 towards Christians, or towards Jews. Interest 

 is their supreme good, and when that comes in 

 competition, all ties of religion, consanguinity, 

 or friendship, are with the generality, speedily 

 dissolved. They have deprived of their liberty, 

 and of their wealth, all who have been subjected 

 to their iron sceptre, and have plunged them into 

 the depths of moral and of mental debasement. 

 The page of history is filled with details of theu 



