BOOK III. CHAP. I. 255 



genius either inventive or imitative. Among fo great a number of 

 provinces on this e.vtenfive continent, and among fo many millions 

 of people, we liave heard but of one or two infignificant tribes, who 

 comprehend any thing of mechanic arts, or manufaflure ; and even 

 thefe, for tlie nioft parr, are faid to perforin their work in a vciy 

 bungling and llovcnly manner, perhaps not better than an or^u- 

 outdng might, with a little pains, be brought to do.. 



The Chinefe, the AL-xicans, the Northern Indians, are all cclc-; 

 hrated, fome for their expert imitation of any pattern laid before 

 them ; others for their faculty of invention ; and the reft for the in- 

 genuity of their fevcral fabrics. There was not a tribe of thefe In- 

 dians, from the Mexican to the Caribbean, that was not found to pof- 

 fefs many amiable endowments. In the hotteft region of South Ame- 

 rica the natives were eflTeminate, lels robufl and courageous than the 

 Noithern inhabitants ; but none of them addicted to the brutal prac- 

 tices common to the Negroes, lying under the fame parallel of cli- 

 mate J on the contrary, thefe Indians are reprefented as a docile, in- 

 offenfive, fagacious, and ingenious people. The Northern Indians, 

 we know, have, ever fince they came to the knowledge of Europeans, 

 difplayed an elevation of foul, which would do honour to the moft 

 civilized nations. It muft be agreed, (fays Charlevoix J that the nearer 

 we view them, the more good quahties we difcover in them ; mofl; of 

 the principles, which feem to regulate their condud, the general max- 

 ims by which they govern themfelves, and the effcntial part of their 

 chara£ler, difclofe nothing of the barbarian. 



The Negroes feem to conform neareit in character to the ^^ayp- 

 tians, in whofe government, fays the learned Goguet, there reigned a 

 multitude of abufes, and eflential defefts, authorized by the laws, and 

 by their fundamental principles. As to their cuftoms and manners, 

 indecency and debauchery were carried to the moft extravagant heioht, 

 in all their public feafts, and religious ceremonies ; neither was their 

 morality pure. It offended againft the tirft rules of reftitude and 

 probity ; they lay under the higheft cenfure for co\xtoufntfs, perfidv,. 

 cunning, and roguery. They were a people without taftc, without 

 genius, or difcernment ; who had only ideas of grandeur, ill under- 

 ftood: knavifh, crafty, foft, lazy, cowardly, and fervile, fuperftitious 

 in excefs, and extravagantly befotted with an abfurd and monftrous 



Z z 2 theology ; 



