Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/444

 .432 General Obfervations on

in Charles-town, feveral young, lazy, deformed white men, with big bellies, who Teemed to require as much help to move them along, as over-grown old women, yet they underftood thefe were paid a great deal of our beloved yellow (lone for bearing the great name of warriors, which mould be kept facred from the effeminate tribe, even if they offered to purchafe it with their whole pofiefiions. That thefe titles fhould only be conferred on thofe who excel in martial virtue ; otherwife, it gives a falfe copy of imitation to the young warriors, and thereby expofes the whole body of the people to contempt and danger, by perverting the means which ought to fecure their lives and properties ; for, when a coun try has none but helplefs people to guard it from hoftile attempts, it is li able to become a prey to any ambitious perfons, who may think proper to invade it. They allow that corpulency is compatible with marking paper black with the goofe quill ; and with ftrong-mouthed labour, or pleading at law ; becaufe old women can fit beft to mark, and^their mouths are al ways the moft fharp and biting. But they reckon if our warriors had gained high titles by perfonal bravery, they would be at leaft in the lhape of men, if not of aclive brifk warriors ; for conftant manly exercife keeps a due temperament of body, and a juft proportion of fhape. They faid, I fome were not fit even for the fervice of an old woman, much lefs for the difficult and lively exercifes which manly warriors pnrfue in their rough element that they could never have gone to war, but bought their -beloved, broad paper with yellow ftone, or it muft have parted from father to fon, like the reft of their pofTeflions ; and that by their intemperate me thod of eating and drinking without proper exercife, they had transformed themfelves into thofe over-grown fhapes, whidi our weavers, taylors, and plaiters of falfe hair, rendered more contemptible.

The old men tell us, they remember our colonies in their infant flate, that when the inhabitants were poor and few m number, they main tained profperous wars againft the numerous combined nations of red people, who furrounded them on all fides, becaufe in thofe early days, the law of reafon was their only guide. In that time of fimplicity, they lived after the temperate manner of the red people. They copied after honeft nature, in their food, drefs, and every purfuit, both in domeftic and focial life. That unerring guide directed them aright, as the event of things publicly de clared.

�� �