212 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



Their underflanding is excellent ; and I have been aflured, not only 

 by Monficur Roubaud, but by every man with whom I have con- 

 verfed that had been much among them, that, in natural parts, and 

 in ikill in thofe arts which they pradice, fuch as hunting and war 

 by ftratagem and furprife, they very much exceed any of the Eu- 

 ropean nations. Monfieur Roubaud related to me many things 

 they faid, both to him, and to Monfieur Montcalme the French 

 governor, who delighted much in converfing with them, which 

 fliowcd not only great acutenefs, but great wifdom and depth 

 of thought. Thefe I will not here infeit, nor many other par- 

 ticulars w^hich he told me, as it would lengthen too much this 

 account of thofe people, which is only intended to Ihow, that men 

 nearer to the natural ftate are better in mind, as well as in body, 

 than nations grown old in civility and arts *. 



But there is one ftory of them, lately come to my know- 

 ledge, which iTiows their manners and fentiments, as much as any 

 thing I have faid of them, and with which, therefore, I will enter- 

 tain the reader. It happened in the v/ar before the laft, and comes to 

 me from a Lady, who told me it was tranllated from the French by 

 the late Dr Hawkefworth, and fent by him to the friend from whom 

 ihe had it. I will give it in the words of the Dod;or, who appears to 

 me, in his tranllation, to have done juflice to the original, and to 

 r.ave told a very fine (lory, of the authenticity of which I have no 

 doubt, having heard, from eye-witnefies, fome ftories of the fame 



kind, 



* There is, however, cr.e Oory he toltl me, which I cannot help relating, as it 

 iliows, as inuch as any thing I have heard, the magUcinimity, or, as we would 

 call it, the pride of an Indian warriour. Iherc were fome Indians j5refcnt at a 

 review of the French troops by M. Montcalme, the French general, in which he 

 thought the men pcrrormcd their exercifes very wl'L Turning about to ?n Imiian 

 chief, who v^'as near him, he faid, (I will give the flory in the words of M. Rou- 

 baud), ' N' ndn^iies tu pas cela ?* To v/hich the Indi,;n anfwered, * JNlonfieur le 

 * Marquis de Moncalm.c, II n'y a que les fots qui p.d n-r !' One fliould have 

 t!oi:ght tl;,-it l;r had read Horace's epiflle, ' Nil admiran,' &c. 



