ANIMALS. 439 



motions. Men who are exercised in running, 

 outstrip horses, or at least hold their speed for 

 a longer continuance. In a journey, also, a man 

 will walk down a horse ; and after they have both 

 continued to proceed for several days, the horse 

 will be quite tired, and the man will be fresher 

 than in the beginning. The king's messengers of 

 Ispahan, who are runners by profession, go thirty- 

 six leagues in fourteen hours. Travellers assure 

 us that the Hottentots outstrip lions in the chase ; 

 and that the savages who hunt the elk pursue 

 with such speed, that they at last tire down and 

 take it. We are told many very surprising things 

 of the great swiftness of the savages, and of the 

 long journeys they undertake, on foot, through 

 the most craggy mountains, where there are no 

 paths to direct, nor houses to entertain them. 

 They are said to perform a journey of twelve 

 hundred leagues in less than six weeks. " But, 

 notwithstanding what travellers report of this 

 matter, I have been assured, from many of our 

 officers and soldiers, who compared their own 

 swiftness with that of the native Americans during 

 the last war, that although the savages held out, 

 and, as the phrase is, had better bottoms, yet, for 

 a spurt, the Englishmen were more nimble and 

 speedy." 



Nevertheless, in general, civilized man is igno- 

 rant of his own powers ; he is ignorant how much 

 he loses by effeminacy, and what might be ac- 

 quired by habit and exercise. Here and there, 

 indeed, men are found among us of extraordinary 

 strength ; but that strength, for want of opportu- 



