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Laftiy, that I may in a few words draw th§ 

 portrait of thefe nations with a mien and ap- 

 pearance altogether favage, and with manners and 

 cuftoms which favour of the groffeft barbarity, 

 they enjoy ali the advantages of fociety, without 

 almoft any of thofe defects, which difturb the 

 pubiick tranquillity amongft us. Whilft they ap- 

 pear entirely void of paftion, they commit in cold 

 blood, and even fometimes from* principle, the 

 fame actions which the moft violent and ungo- 

 vernable rage, is capable of infpiring. Thofe very 

 perfons who feemed to lead the moft wretched 

 lives, were perhaps the only happy mortals on 

 the face of the earth, before they were acquainted 

 with thofe objects wh ch leduce and pervert us : 

 and even yet luxury has made no great ravages 

 amongft them. We perceive in them a mixture 

 of ferocity and gentlenefs, the paflions and appe- 

 tites of beads of prey, joined to a virtue which 

 does honour to human nature. At firft view one 

 would imagine them without any form of govern- 

 ment, Jaw or fubordination, and that living in 

 an abfolute independance, they abandon them- 

 felves to the conduct of blind chance, and to the 

 wildeft caprice ; they not with (landing enjoy all the 

 advantages which the bed regulated authority is 

 capable of procuring, in the moft civilized nations. 

 Born free and independant, they are ftruck with 

 horror at whatever has the fhadow of defpotic 

 power, and very rarely deviate from certain 

 maxims and ufages founded in good fenfe alone, 

 which holds the place of law, and fupplies in fome 

 fort the want of legal authority. They have a na- 

 tural repugnance to reftraint of every fort, but 

 reafon alone is capable of retaining them in a kind 

 of fubordination, not the lefs effectual towards the 

 end propofed for being entirely voluntary. 



Any 



