SECT. II.] UNCULTURED PEOPLES. 293 



all the misery a people may endure, it generally considers its 

 own country as the best in the world, and its manners and cus- 

 toms as the most preferable. Cavazzi 1 gives a graphic descrip- 

 tion of the Congo-negroes, who, after having emigrated, return 

 like the Kru-negroes to their native country, there to enjoy 

 what they may have acquired. This sentiment seems general 

 among negro nations ; and especially in such parts of Ame- 

 rica as are visited by Europeans, the natives have the firm 

 belief that the Whites have only left their homes in search for 

 happier climates. We are, indeed, told of an Abiponian who 

 worked hard for his passage to Buenos Ayres in order to gra- 

 tify his desire of seeing the world. 2 Du Pratz 3 also speaks of 

 a native whom a similar desire drove into the world ; but such 

 cases form rare exceptions. From the inhabitant of Tierra del 

 Fuego to the Hottentot, man in the natural state remains con- 

 tent with his lot though living in the greatest misery, while it 

 is difficult to find among the civilized nations of Europe one 

 people which is similarly contented. Hence the following ex- 

 pression of an experienced man becomes intelligible : " There 

 are positions in which a thinking man feels himself inferior to 

 a child of nature, in which he begins to doubt whether his firm 

 convictions are little better than high sounding prejudices." 4 

 This at any rate is certain, that every race, as Strzelecki ob- 

 serves, 5 has its own ideas of happiness : the restless striving of 

 the civilized man appears to the uncultivated man as childish, 

 whilst the enjoyment of an apathetic rest the ideal of the 

 latter would be extremely irksome to the former. 



The principal motives for action among uncultivated nations 

 may be reduced to three : physical well-being, chiefly directed 

 to the gratification of the appetites, sexual enjoyment, and in- 

 dolence, in consequence of a reluctance to every kind of labour ; 

 social enjoyment, effected partly by subjecting the members of 

 family to the will of one man, and partly by obtaining greater 

 power over others; and, thirdly, habit, the power of which 



1 " Beschr. v. Congo, Matamba, und Angola," p. 76, 1694. 



2 J. P. and W. P. Robertson, " Letters on South America," iii, p. 186, 1843. 



3 " Hist, de la Louisiane," 1758. 



4 Cowper Eose, " Four Years in Southern Africa," p. 173, 1829. 



5 " Description of New South Wales," p. 343. 



