And though they are all thus naked, if one lives forever
among 'em there is not to be seen an undecent action, or glance: and
being continually used to see one another so unadorned, so like our
first parents before the Fall, it seems as if they had no wishes,
there being nothing to heighten curiosity; but all you can see, you
see at once, and every moment see; and where there is no novelty,
there can be no curiosity. Not but I have seen a handsome young Indian
dying for love of a very beautiful young Indian maid; but all his
courtship was to fold his arms, pursue her with his eyes, and sighs
were all his language: while she, as if no such lover were present, or
rather as if she desired none such, carefully guarded her eyes from
beholding him; and never approached him but she looked down with all
the blushing modesty I have seen in the most severe and cautious of
our world. And these people represented to me an absolute idea of
the first state of innocence, before man knew how to sin. And 'tis
most evident and plain that simple Nature is the most harmless,
inoffensive, and virtuous mistress. 'Tis she alone, if she were
permitted, that better instructs the world than all the inventions
of man. Religion would here but destroy that tranquillity they possess
by ignorance; and laws would but teach 'em to know offense, of which
now they have no notion. They once made mourning and fasting for the
death of the English Governor, who had given his hand to come on
such a day to 'em, and neither came nor sent; believing, when a
man's word was past, nothing but death could or should prevent his
keeping it: and when they saw he was not dead, they asked him what
name they had for a man who promised a thing he did not do.
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