(-85 ) 



* s plied the patient, I have killed a fufficient tiutifc 

 ** ber of them, but I do not reckon thefe to be 

 " men." 



What I have remarked elfewhere in order to 

 diminifh the furprize which fuch an infenfibiiity 

 might occafion, hinders us not from acknow- i 

 ledging an extraordinary courage in them. But 

 however, in order to elevate the foul to fuch a de- 

 gree, beyond all fenfe of feeling, requires an 

 effort of which vulgar fouls are utterly incapable 

 this the Indians exercife themfelves in during their 

 whole lives, and accuftom their children to it 

 from their tendered infancy. Little boys and girls 

 have been feen to tie themfelves together by an 

 arm, and, to put between a red coal to fee who 

 mould fhrink fir ft. Laftly, we muft alfo agree, 

 that according to the remark of Cicero, the ha- 

 bit of labour renders torments the more fuppor- 

 table. Now there is not perhaps in the whole 

 world a people, who endure more fatigue than the 

 Indians, both in their huntings and voyages. In 

 a word, what proves this infenfibiiity in thefe bar- 

 barians, to be the effect of true courage is, that 

 all of them are not equally poffeffed of it. 



It is no wonder that with fuch a firmnefs of 

 mind, and with fentiments fo elevated, the Indians 

 fliould be intrepid in the midft of danger, and of 

 a courage which nothing can friake ; it is never- 

 thelefs true, that in their wars they expofe them- 

 felves as little as poffible, only becaufe they place 

 their glory in never buying victory to© dear, and 

 that as their nations are thin of people, they have 

 adopted this maxim to weaken themfelves as little 

 as poffible ; but when they are under a neceffity of 

 fighting, they behave like lions, and the fight of 



G 3 their 



