The
Governor told them, such a man was a liar, which was a word of
infamy to a gentleman. Then one of 'em replied, "Governor, you are a
liar, and guilty of that infamy." They have a native justice, which
knows no fraud; and they understand no vice, or cunning, but when they
are taught by the white men. They have plurality of wives; which, when
they grow old, serve those that succeed 'em, who are young, but with a
servitude easy and respected; and unless they take slaves in war, they
have no other attendants.
Those on that continent where I was had no king; but the oldest
war-captain was obeyed with great resignation.
A war-captain is a man who has led them on to battle with conduct
and success; of whom I shall have occasion to speak more hereafter,
and of some other of their customs and manners, as they fall in my
way.
With these people, as I said, we live in perfect tranquillity and
good understanding, as it behoves us to do; they knowing all the
places where to seek the best food of the country, and the means of
getting it; and for very small and unvaluable trifles, supply us
with that 'tis impossible for us to get: for they do not only in the
woods, and over the savannahs, in hunting, supply the parts of hounds,
by swiftly scouring through those almost impassable places, and by the
mere activity of their feet run down the nimblest deer and other
eatable beasts; but in the water, one would think they were gods of
the rivers, or fellow-citizens of the deep; so rare an art they have
in swimming, diving, and almost living in water; by which they command
the less swift inhabitants of the floods.
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