282 
war, and the consequent incitements to cruelty, being 
a probable result at no distant period under the present 
monarch, the natives will have a breathing time for 
reflection, and for attending to those religious and 
moral duties which hitherto have neither been im¬ 
parted, nor have they had the opportunity of receiving 
them. 
As to their political state, it is absolutely anomalous. 
It is the only country in the world possessing such 
resources and capabilities of every kind, that is not 
either appropriated by an European power, or from 
which some one of them does not derive a portion of 
its resources. Our fleets and armies have traversed 
the globe from one side to the other, until there is 
scarcely a considerable spot but may be accurately 
described from recent observation. But of this coun¬ 
try comparatively nothing is known; and if we wish 
to obtain authentic information on the subject, we 
are constrained to refer back to the historical pages 
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; to seek 
it from such sources as, in any other case, the man of 
science would either reject with scorn, or refer to, 
from motives of curiosity alone, to ascertain how far, 
in those ages of credulity and deception, they fell 
below the present generation, in accuracy of know¬ 
ledge, and fidelity of description. 
Nor is this the only singularity of their case. Hi¬ 
therto we have been taught to consider them as a race 
of savages, possessing no other useful qualifications, 
as individuals, than physical power; and consequently 
doomed by nature, as well as hard fate, to unceasing 
