things. Much less can they credit the stories told of many nations, the Egyptians in particular,

"Who are said

"To have set the leek they after pray'd to." But if they do not consider, who they are that transmit to us these accounts, namely, both those writers who, they profess to believe, spake " as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," and those whom perhaps they value more, the most credible of their contemporary Heathens: If, I say, they forget this, do they not consider the present state of the Heathen world? Now, allowing the bulk of the ancient Heathens (which itself is not easily proved) to have had as much understanding as the modern, we have no pretence to suppose they had more. Whatever therefore they were, we may safely gather from what they are: we may judge of the past by the present. Would we know then (to begin with a part of the world known to very early antiquity) what manner of men the Heathens in Africa were two or three thousand years ago? Inquire what they are now; who are genuine Pagans still, not tainted either with Mahometanism or Christianity. They are to be found in abundance, either in Negro-land, or round the Cape of Good-Hope. Now what measure of knowledge have the natives of these countries? I do not say in metaphysics, mathematics, or astronómy. Of these it is plain they know just as much as their four-footed brethren. The lion and the man are equally accomplished with regard to this knowledge. I will not ask, what they know of the nature of government, of the respective rights of kings, and various orders of subjects. In this regard, a herd of men are manifestly inferior to a herd of elephants. But let us view them with respect to common life. What do they know of the things they continually stand in need of? How do they build habitations for themselves and their families? How select and prepare their food? Clothe and adorn their Clothe and adorn their persons? A's to their habitations, it is certain, I will not say, our horses, (particularly those belonging to the nobility and gentry,)

an English peasant's dogs, nay, his very swine are more

commodiously lodged. And as to their food, apparel, and
ornaments, they are just suitable to their edifices.
"Your nicer Hottentots think meet

With guts and tripe to deck their feet.
With downcast eyes on Totta's legs,
The love-sick youth most humbly begs,
She would not from his sight remove,

At once his breakfast and his love."

Such is the knowledge of these accomplished animals in things which cannot but daily employ their thoughts: and wherein consequently they cannot avoid exerting to the uttermost both their natural and acquired understanding.

And what are their present attainments in virtue? Are they not, one and all, " without God in the world?" Having either no knowledge of him at all, no conception of any thing he has to do with them, or they with him: or such conceptions as are far worse than none, as make him such a one as themselves. And what are their social virtues ? What are their dispositions and behaviour between man and man? Are they eminent for justice? For mercy, or truth? As to mercy, they know not what it means, being continually cutting each other's throats, from generation to generation, and selling for slaves as many of those who fall into their hands, as on that consideration only they do not murder. Justice they have none; no courts of justice at all; no public method of redressing wrong, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, till a stronger than he beats out his brains for so doing. And they have just as much regard to truth; cozening, cheating, and over-reaching every man that believes a word they say. Such are the moral, such the intellectual perfections, according to the latest and most accurate accounts, of the present Heathens, who are diffused in great numbers over a fourth part of the known world!

3. It is true, that in the new world, in America, they seem to breathe a purer air, and to be in general men of a stronger understanding, and a less savage temper. Among these then we may surely find higher degrees of knowledge

as well as virtue. But in order to form a just conception of them, we must not take our account from their enemies; from any that would justify themselves by blackening those whom they seek to destroy. No, but let us inquire of more impartial judges, concerning those whom they have personally known, the Indians bordering upon our own settlements, from New-England down to Georgia.

We cannot learn, that there is any great difference in point of knowledge, between any of these, from east to west, or from north to south. They are all equally unacquainted with European learning, being total strangers to every branch of literature, having not the least conception of any part of philosophy, speculative or practical. Neither have they (whatever accounts some have given) any such thing as a regular, civil government among them. They have no laws of any kind, unless a few temporary rules made in and for the times of war. They are likewise utter strangers to the arts of peace, having scarcely any such thing as an artificer in the nation. They know nothing of building; having only poor, miserable, ill-contrived huts, far inferior to many English dog-kennels. Their clothing, till of late, was only skins of beasts, commonly of deer, hanging down before and behind them. Now, among those who have commerce with our nation, it is frequently a blanket wrapped about them. Their food is equally delicate; pounded Indian corn sometimes mixed with water, and so eaten at once: sometimes kneaded into cakes, meal and bran together, and half baked upon the coals. Fish or flesh, dried in the sun, is frequently added to this; and now and then a piece of tough, fresh-killed deer.

Such is the knowledge of the Americans, whether in things of an abstruser nature, or in the affairs of common life. And this, so far as we can learn, is the condition of all, without any considerable difference. But in point of religion, there is a very material difference between the Northern and Southern Indians. Those in the north are idolaters of the lowest kind: If they do not worship the devil appearing in person, (which many firmly believe they

do, many think incredible,) certainly they worship the most vile and contemptible idols. It were more excusable if they only "turned the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of corruptible man;" yea, or "of birds, or of four-footed beasts, or reptiles," or any creature which God has made. But their idols are more horrid and deformed than any thing in the visible creation: and their whole worship is at once the highest affront to the divine, and disgrace to the human nature.

On the contrary, the Indians of our southern provinces do not appear to have any worship at all. By the most diligent inquiry from those who had spent many years among them, I could never learn that any of the Indian nations, who border on Georgia and Carolina, have any public worship, of any kind: or any private. For they have no idea of prayer. It is not without much difficulty that one can make any of them understand what is meant by prayer. And when they do, they cannot be made to apprehend, that God will answer, or even hear it. They say, "He that sitteth in heaven is too high, he is too far off to hear us." In consequence of which they leave him to himself, and manage their affairs without him. Only the Chicasaws, of all the Indian nations, are an exception to this.

I believe, it will be found on the strictest inquiry, that the whole body of southern Indians, as they have no letters and no laws, so properly speaking, have no religion at all. So that every one does what he sees good; and if it appears wrong to his neighbour, he usually comes upon him unawares, and shoots or scalps him alive. They are likewise all (I could never find any exception) gluttons, drunkards, thieves, dissemblers, liars. They are implacable, never forgiving an injury or affront, or being satisfied with less than blood. They are unmerciful, killing all whom they take prisoners in war, with the most exquisite tortures. They are murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, murderers of their own children: It being a common thing for a son to shoot his father or mother, because they are old and past labour, and for a woman either to procure abor

tion, or to throw her child into the next river, because she will go to the war with her husband. Indeed husbands properly speaking, they have none; for any man leaves his wife, so called, at pleasure; who frequently in return, cuts the throats of all the children she has had by him.

The Chicasaws alone seem to have some notion of an intercourse between man and a superior being. They speak much of their beloved ones; with whom they say, they converse both day and night. But their beloved ones teach them to eat and drink from morning to night, and in a manner from night to morning: for they rise at any hour of the night when they wake, and eat and drink as much as they can, and sleep again. Their beloved ones likewise expressly command them, to torture and burn all their prisoners. Their manner of doing it is this: They hold lighted canes to their arms and legs, and several parts of their body, for some time, and then for awhile they take them away. They also stick burning pieces of wood in their flesh; in which condition they keep them from morning to evening. Such are at present the knowledge and virtue of the native Heathens, over another fourth part of the known world.

4. In Asia, however, we are informed, that the case is widely different. For although the Heathens bordering on Europe, the thousands and myriads of Tartars have not much to boast either as to knowledge or virtue; and altho' the numerous little nations under the Mogul who retain their original Heathenism, are nearly on a level with them, as are the inhabitants of the many large and pópulous islands in the eastern seas: yet we hear high encomiums of the Chinese, who are as numerous as all these together: some late travellers assuring us, That China alone has fifty eight millions of inhabitants. Now these have been described as men of the deepest penetration, the highest learning, and the strictest integrity. And such doubtless they are, at least with regard to their understanding, if we will believe their own proverb; "The Chinese have two eyes, the Europeans one, and other men none at all."

And one circumstance, it must be owned, is much in