( i66 ) 



%t*r health at a time of life, when if it fuffers it is 

 Seldom or never recovered. Their agility and ad- 

 drefs are unequalled ; the moil expert Indians them- 

 felves are not better markfmen, or manage their ca- 

 noes in the moil dangerous rapids with greater fliill. 



Many are "of opinion that they are unfit for the 

 jfciences, which require any great degree of applica- 4 

 tion, and a continued ftudy. I am not able to fay 

 whether this prejudice is well founded, for as yet 

 we have feen no Canadian who has endeavoured to 

 remove it, which is perhaps owing to the diffipation 

 in which they are brought up. But nobody can de- 

 ny them an excellent genius for mechanics ; they 

 have hardly any occafion for the affiftance of a mai- 

 ler in order to excel in this fcience •, and fome are 

 every day to be met with who have fucceeded in all 

 trades, without ever having ferved an apprentice- 

 fhip. 



Some people tax them with ingratitude, neverthe- 

 Iefs they feem to me to have a pretty good difpofi- 

 tion ; but their natural inconftancy often prevents 

 their attending to the duties required by gratitude. 

 It is alledged they make bad fervants, which is 

 owing to their great haughtinefs of fpirit, and to 

 their loving liberty too much to fubject themfelves 

 willingly to fervitude, They are however good 

 matters, which is the reverfe of what is faid of thofe 

 from whom the greater! part of them are defcended. 

 They would have been perfect in character, if to 

 their own virtues they had added thofe of their an- 

 ceftors. Their inconftancy in friendfhip has fome- 

 times been complained of; but this complaint can 

 hardly be general, and in thofe who have given oc- 

 cafion for it, it proceeds from their not being accuf- 

 tomed to con ft rain t, even in their own affairs. If 



they 



