CANTABRIANS. 
7(^ 
ihey are not deterred from plunging into the water, if the working of 
the ship require it. These excellent qualifications, which distingtiish 
them, do not, however, preserve them from rapine. They are emu- 
lous to surpass one another in all the arts of over-reaching and fraud. 
The conduct of the Europeans has, no doubt, encouraged these vices, 
as much as the lessons of the Marabous, who inculcate the duty of 
plundering the Christians to the utmost of their power. The Yolof 
negroes of Senegal are either Christians or Mahometans, or, with more 
truth, neither ; religion being a matter of indifference to them. 
Cantabrians. 
The inhabitants of Cantabria are famous for their warlike character. 
In conjunction with the Asturians, they carried on desperate wars 
with the Romans, but were subdued by them about B. C. 25. Im- 
patient, however, of a foreign yoke, they soon revolted. Most of 
their youth had been taken prisoners by the Romans, and sold for 
slaves to the neighbouring nations ; but having found means to break 
their chains, they cut the throats of their masters, and, returning to 
their own country, attacked the Roman garrisons with great fury. 
Agrippa marched against them with great expedition, but, on his 
arrival, met with so vigorous a resistance, that his soldiers began to 
despair of ever reducing them. 
As the Cantabrians had waged war with Rome for upwards of 200 
years, they were well acquainted with their manner of fighting, no way 
inferior to them in courage, and were become desperate, knowing 
that if they were conquered after having so often attempted to reco- 
ver their liberty, they must expect the most severe usage. Animated 
by this reflection, they fell upon the Romans with a fury hardly to 
be imagined, routed them in several engagements, and defended them- 
selves when attacked with such intrepidity, that Agrippa afterwards 
owned he had never, either by sea or land, been engaged in a more 
dangerous enterprise. That brave commander used entreaties and 
menaces, and even branded some of his legionaries with ignominy, be- 
fore he could bring them to enter the lists with such a formidable 
foe. But having at last prevailed upon them to try the chance of an 
engagement in the open field, he so animated them by his own exam- 
ple, that after a most obstinate dispute he gained a complete victory, 
which put an end to that destructive war. All the Cantabrians fit 
to bear arms were cut in pieces, their castles and strong holds taken 
and razed, and their women, children, and old men, none else being 
left alive, were obliged to abandon the mountainous parts, and settle 
in the plain. 
Customs, Dress, &c. of th^ Americans.’ 
All the Indian nations take a peculiar pleasure in painting the«r 
bodies of a red colour wdth a certain species of earth. The mine of 
Guancavolica was formerly of no other use than to supply them with 
this material for dying their bodies ; and the cinnabar extracted from 
it was applied entirely to this purpose. The tribes in Louisiana aiid 
