Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/446

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fayjng, that though they are unfkilful in making the marks of -our ugty lying books, which fpoil people's honefty, yet they are duly taught in the honefl volumes of nature, which always whilper in their ears, a ftrong lefibn of love to all of their own family, and an utter contempt of danger in defence of their beloved country, at their own private coflr, that they confer titles of honour only on thofe who deferve them, that the fpeak- ing trophies of war declare -the true merit of their contented warriors, without having the lead recourfe to any borrowed help. They fay, that the virtue even of their young women does not allow them to bear the leaft regard to any of the young men, on account of their glittering clothes, and that none of their warriors would exped it, nor their laws allow it, if ever their country mould unhappily produce fo contemptible an animal. Imitation is natural, and the red people follow virtue in the old track of their honeft fore-fathers, while we are bewildered by evil cuf- tom.

As their own affairs lie in a very narrow circle, it is difficult to mi- prefs them with a favourable opinion of the wifdom and juftice of our voluminous laws They fay, if our laws were honeft, or wifely framed, they would .be plain and few, that the poor people might underftand and re member them, as well as the rich That right and wrong, an honeft man and a rogue, with as many other names as our large crabbed books could contain, are only two contraries, that fimple nature enables every perfon to be a proper judge of promoting good, and preventing evil, either by determinations, rewards, or punimments, and that people cannot in juftice be accufed of violating any laws, when it is out of their power to have a .proper knowledge of them. They reckon, that if our legiflators were not moved by fome oblique views, inftead of acYmg the part of mud- fifh, they would imitate the fkilful bee, and extract the ufeful part of their unwieldy, confufed, old books, and infert it in an honeft fmall one, that the poor peopJe might be able to buy, and read it, to enable them to teach their rifvng families to avoid fnares, and keep them from falling into the power of our .cunning fpeakers who are not alhamed to fcold and lie publickly when they are well paid for it, but if intereft no longer tempted them to inforce hurtful lies for truth, would probably throw away all their dangerous quibbling books. That the poor people might have redreis and juftice, this mould become a public concern, and the Go- 7 vernor-

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