SUMATRA. 
pofe every man might have an opportunity of bringing to the te(! of 
truth, affords a humiliating proof of the weaknefs and credulit)'^ of hu- 
mafn oaturcj and the fallibility of teftimony, when a film of prejudice 
obfcures the light of the under Handing. I have known two men, whofc 
honefty, good faith j and reafonablenefs in the general concerns of life 
were wall cftabliflied, and whofe aflertions would have weight in tranf- 
aftions of confequenee : thefe men, I have heard maintain, with the 
moft deliberate cot\flderLce, and an appearance of inward convi^ion of 
their ownfincerity, that they had more than once, in the courfe of their 
wars, attempted to run their weapons into the naked body of their ad- 
verfary, which they found impenetrable ; their points being continually 
and miraculoufly turned^ without any cifort on the part of the ormg he- 
tooah : and that hundreds of inftances, of the like nature,, where the in- 
vulnerable man did not poflefs the fmallell natural means of oppofition, 
had come within their obfervation. An Englilh officer, with more cou- 
rage and humor, than difcretion, expofed one impoflure of this kind, 
A man having boafted in his prefence,. that he was endowe^i with thU 
fupernatiirai priviJedge, tKe o^eer ta<^k an opp<M^umt}r uf applying to 
liis arm^ the point of a fword, and drew the blood ; to the no little 
cunoufly made of rattans ; and for marks of difiijiffion thej* have garlands compofed of feathers. 
Their weapons are bows and arrows, and a Large thick knife. In foroe rcfpefts they rcfembLe the 
favagcs of North America, for iheir grcatcft ambition h to drink out of theikuUs of their enemies* 
after having fcaJpcJ them. They live moflly on fruits, and rtjoxs, in the. wood*, and when thiy 
meet with any gamt they make a feaft, and after ttrbg themfelves widx dancing, flecp together 
in heaps, like brntes, in the open air. They have neither letters, laws^ nor other government, 
tlian that every family is fubje£t to ii*s head, and their only care is to defend their diftriils, abouf 
which they have frequent and bloody wars. Formerly, as nattiral lords of the counti^, they 
obliged the people who fettled in the low lands, to pay them a bibutc for the ufe of the ^voods 
and rivers. In different parts of the ifland'they have diBFerent names, but the Spaniards in ge- 
neral call them Negritos d(l mntt, fome of them being as black as the natives of Guinfaj parti- 
cularly in the TJkt de I^egr&s. It is belitve(^thal they were tlie original inhabitants of the iflandj, 
but It is a matter of fome difScolty to dtfcorer from whence this raea, fo different in color and 
cuftoms from all the neighbouring people, could proceed ; if it is not allowed that their clificrent 
aliment, aivd being continually expofed t& the v^-eatlier, would produce this effed* The more 
giviliicd nations before defciibcd, whom the Spaniards call the Indians, are a robufl, well made 
pcopkj faiTi butinciiccd to copper colorj wiih fla.tulh nofesj black eyes and hair. 
