Chap. VIIL A NT I E N T METAPHYSICS. 209 



Their public fplrit, and their attachment to their nation, is, I 

 am afraid, greater than the attachment of the mod of us to our fa- 

 milies. And, indeed, they confider their nation as their family ; 

 fo that whatever injury is done to their nation, they confider as 

 done to themfelves : And they make no diftinftion betwixt the in- 

 dividuals of any nation and the nation ; for, if they are wron^-ed 

 by an individual of another nation, they are fatisfied with reven- 

 ging it upon any other individual of the fame nation. 



As to private friendfhip, fuch heroic friendihips as thofe of Her- 

 cules and Thefeus, Pylades and Oreftes, fo much celebrated in an- 

 tient ftory, are common among them ; and there are very few of 

 them who do not live and die with their friend. There was one 

 of them, known by the nickname of Silverfoot, who was a fworn 

 friend of a Scotch officer of the name of Kennedy. This officer 

 was obliged, in the way of his duty, to go to the fiege of the Ha- 

 vannah, in the lafl: war. He told his Indian friend that he had no- 

 thing to do there ; and therefore defired that he would not follov/ 

 him to a place where there was more danger from the climate than 

 from the enemy. But his friend could not be perfuaded to leave 

 him. Kennedy died there, and his friend very foon after him • 

 not of difeafe, as I w^as informed, but of grief. 



Nor are their friendihips with one another greater than their 

 hofpitality to ftrangers. If you come under an Indian's roof, he 

 will protect you at the hazard of his life, and treat you with the 

 very beft things he has to give you, even if he ffiould want him- 

 felf ; and Monfieur Roubaud told me that he has known them 

 faft three days, to fave provifions for him. If a ftranger flays any 

 time with them, they tell him " that the fun fhone brighter fince he 

 *' came to their houfe." This is truly a claffical compliment, and 

 Vol. Ill, D d was 



