126 TRAVELS IN 
ferings on our part would they fee their 
boldnefs rewarded ? Such however is their 
hlftory, or ours ; fuch have been our enter- 
prifes attempted in three quarters of the 
world with too much fuccefs. In every place 
where we have thought proper to eftablifli 
ourfclves, we have compelled thefe unhappy 
wretches, perfecuted to a ftate of flavery, to 
betake themfelves to flight ; we have appro- 
priated to ourfelves, without the lead fcruple, 
whatever we found ufeful to us; and when 
the hour of vengeance has been proclaimed 
for them, and when they meafured their 
blows by the magnitude of their injuries, 
without reviewi[]g our own condu£l, and too 
much blinded by intereft or fanaticifm, we 
have dared to call them barbarians, eaters of 
n en, and ferocious animals, who live by 
murder, and allay their thirft with blood. 
To what imprudence muft we attribute 
the death of that celebrated navigator Cap- 
tain Cook ? — I am inclined to believe that a 
confcioufnefs of his ovv^n ftrength, and his 
bold and enterprifing charadler, never led him 
to commit any of thofe criminal exceffes of 
which he in his turn perifhed a vidim ; but 
the ardeiiC deiire of the undifciplined crew 
that 
