42 M-Keevor's Voyage to Hudson's Say. 



Yet there may be men too that know something of him. Oh! 

 could I but speak with such ! Therefore, (said he) as soon 

 as ever I heard you speak of this Great Being-, I believed it 

 directly with all my heart, because I had so long desired it." 

 They all believe in a future state, but differ very much with 

 regard to its nature and situation. In general, they ima- 

 gine it to be a better state than this temporal life, and that it 

 will never end. As they procure the greater part of their 

 food from the bosom of the sea, therefore many of them place 

 their Elysium in the abysses of the ocean, or bowels of the 

 earth, and think the deep cavities of the rocks are the avenues 

 leading to it. There, they imagine, dwells a Tonjarink and 

 his mother ; there a joyous summer is perpetual, and a shining 

 sun obscured by no night; there is the fair limpid stream, 

 and an exuberance of fowls, fishes, and their beloved seals, and 

 these are all to be caught without toil ; nay, they are even 

 found in a great kettle ready drest. But to these places none 

 must approach, except those that have been dextrous and dili- 

 gent at their work ; that have performed great exploits, have 

 mastered many whales and seals, have undergone great hard- 

 ships, have been drowned in the sea, or died in childbed. 



In reviewing the manners of these untutored Indians, some 

 few particulars excepted, we are presented with an interesting 

 view of primeval happiness, arising chiefly from the fewness 

 of their wants, and their universal equality. The latter de- 

 stroys all distinction among them, except those of age and 

 personal merit, and promotes the ease, harmony, and freedom 

 of their mutual conversation and intercourse. This facilitates 

 the happiness of the Indian lover, who finds no obstacles to 

 the fruition of his desires, from inequality of rank or fortune, 

 or from the views which ambition or envy inspire ; and this 

 annihilates all envy and discontent. But the advantages re- 

 sulting from the paucity and simplicity of their desires, contri- 

 bute to their felicity in a more eminent degree. Those who 

 have been unhappily familiarised to all the various refinements 

 of luxury and effeminacy which attend the great, and whose 

 deluded imaginations esteem them essential to happiness, will 

 hardly believe, that an Indian, \nthout any other covering but 

 what an undressed seal-skin affords, with a shelter which can- 

 not deserve the name of a house, and a few culinary and 

 domestic utensils, could form any pretensions to happiness; and 

 yet, if I may be allowed lo judge from external appearances, 

 the happiness of these people may justly be envied, even by 

 the wealthy of the most refined countries ; as their happy ig- 

 norance of those extravagant desires and endless pursuits 

 which agitate the great Juxurious world, excludes every wish 



