Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/241

 An Account of the Cheerake Nation. 229

they have plenty of the former, and a variety of the latter that grow fpontaneoully. If thefe were properly cultivated, there muft be a good return. I have gathered good hops in the woods oppofite to Nuquofe, where our troops were repelled by the Cheerake, in the year 1760. There is not a more healthful region under the fun, than this country, for the air is commonly open and clear, and plenty of wholefome and pkafanc water. I know feveral bold rivers, that fill themfelves in running about thirty miles, counting by a dire<5t courie from their feveral different foun tains, and which are almoft as tranfparent as glafs. The natives live com monly to a great age, which is not to be wondered at, when we confider the high fituation of their country, the exercifes they purfue, the rich- nefs of the foil that produces plenty for a needful fupport of life, with out fatiguing, or over-heating the planters, the advantages they receive from fuch excellent good water, as gufhes out of every hill -, and the great additional help by a plain abftemious life, commonly eating and drinking, only according to the felicitations of nature. I have feen ftrangers however, full of admiration at beholding fo few old people in that country j and they have concluded from thence, and reported in the Englifh fettlements, that it was a fickly fhort-lived region : but we mould confider, they are always involved in treacherous wars, and expofed to perpetual dangers, by which, infirm and- declining people generally fall, and the manly old warrior will not Ihrink. And yet many of the peaceable fellows, and women, efpe- cially in the central towns, fee the grey hairs of their children, long be fore they die ; and in every Indian country, there are a great many old women on the frontiers, perhaps ten times the number of the men of the fame age and place which plainly fhews the country to be healthy. Thofe reach to a great age, who live fecure by the fire-fide, but no climates or conftitudons can harden the human body, and make it bullet-proof,

The Cheerake country abounds with the bed herbage, on the richer parts of the hills and mountains \ and a great variety of valuable herbs is promifcuoufiy fcattered on the lower lands. It is remarkable, that none of our botanifts (hould attempt making any experiments there, notwithftand- ing the place invited their attention, and the public had a right to exped fo generous an undertaking from feveral of them, while at the fame time, they would be recovering, or renewing their health, at a far eafier, cheaper, and fafer rate, than coafting it to our northern colonies.

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