378 lawson's history 



that you cannot suppose the Indians ever could 

 express themselves in such a flight of stile, as au- 

 thors would have you believe. They are so far 

 from it, that they are but just able to make one an- 

 other understand readily what they talk about. As 

 for the two consonants L. and F. I never knew 

 them in any Indian speech I have met withal ; yet 

 I must tell you, that they have such a way of ab- 

 breviating their speech, when in their great coun- 

 cils and debates, that the young men do not un- 

 derstand what they treat about, when they hear 

 them argue ; It is wonderful, what has occosioned 

 so many different speeches as the savages have. 

 The three nations I now mentioned, do not live 

 above ten leagues distant, and two of them, viz : 

 the Tuskeruros and the "Woccon, are not two 

 leagues asunder ; yet their speech differs in every 

 word thereof, except one, which is Tsaure, Cockles, 

 which is in both tongues the same, and nothing 

 else. Now this difference of speech causes jeal- 

 ousies and fears amongst them, wich bring wars, 

 wherein they destroy one another ; otherwise the 

 christians had not, in all probability, settled Amer- 

 ica so easily, as they have done, had these tribes 

 of savages united themselves into one people or 

 general interest, or were they so but every hun- 

 dred miles. In short, they are an odd sort of peo- 

 ple under the circumstances they are at present, 

 and have some such uncouth ways in their man- 

 agement and course of living, that it seems a 

 miracle to us, how they bring about their designs, 



