EXPEDITION TO SURITsTAM. 



38t 



whence apparently they have emigrated, and hitherto but 

 thinly peopled the New World, the Mexicans and a few 

 others excepted, till they were butchered by Spanifli ava- 

 rice and fnperftition. A happy people I call them ftill, 

 whofe peace and genuine morals have not been conta- 

 minated with European vices ; and whofe errors are only 

 the errors of ignorance, and not the rooted depravity of 

 a pretended civilization, and a fpurious and mock Chrif- 

 tianity. 



" Lo! the poor Indian, whofe untutor'd mind 

 Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind j 

 His foul, proud fcience never taught to ftray. 

 Far as the folar walk, or milky way ; 

 Yet fimple nature to his hope has giv'n, 

 "Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n i 

 Some fafer world, in depth of woods embrac'd. 

 Some happier ifland in the wat'ry waftej ' 

 Where flaves once more their native land beholdj 

 No flends torment, no Chriftians thirft for gold. 

 To be, contents his natural defire, i 

 He afks no Angel's wing, no Seraph's firej 

 But thinks, admitted to that equal fky. 

 His faithful dog fhall bear him company. 

 Go, wifer thou ! and, in thy fcale of fenfe. 

 Weigh thy opinion againft Providence." 



CHAP. 

 XV. 



For my part I muft fay, with Socrates, that this kind of 

 poverty is alone the truefl kind of riches ; as thofe who 

 want leaft approach neareft to the gods, who want no- 



thing. 



