to hiiu every night in his tent, and told him not to be afraid, they Ihould not kill him. After many days deliberation, however, the determination was, con- trary to Silouee's expeftation, that Byrd fliould be put to death, and some warriors were difpatched as executioners. Silouee attended them, and when they entered the tent, he threw himfelf between them and Byrd, and said to the warriors, " This man is my friend : before you get at him, you mull kill me." On which they returned, and the council rcfpedled the principle fo much as to recede from their determination.
case with every barbarous people* With fuch, force is law. The ftronger fex therefore impofes on the weaker. It is civilization alone which replaces women in the enjoyment of their natural equality. That firft teaches us to fubdue the felfifh paffions, and to refpect thofe rights in others which we value in ourfelves.
Were we in equal barbarifm, our females would be equal drudges. The man with them is lefs ftrong than with us, but their women ftronger than ours; and both for the fame obvious reafon; becaufe our man and their woman is habituated to labour, and formed by it. With both races the fex which is indulged with eaſe is leaft athletic.
An Indian man is fmall in the hand and wrift, for the fame reafon for which a failor is large and ftrong in the arms and fhoulders, and a porter in the legs and thighs.
They raife fewer children than we do. The caufes of this are to be found, not in a difference of nature, but of circumftance. The women very frequently attending the men in their parties of war and of hunting, child-bearing becomes extremely inconvenient to them. It is faid, therefore, that they have learned the practice of procuring abortion by the ufe of fome vegetable; and that it even extends to prevent conception for a confiderable time after.