will defend liiAifelf againfl: an hoil of ene- mies, always choofing to be killed, rather than to furrender*, though it be to the whites, who he knows will treat him well:
that in other fituations alfo he meets death with more deliberation, and endures tor- tures with a firmnefs unknown almoft to * In fo judicious an author as Don UUoa, and one to whom we ave in- debted for the moft precife information we have of South America, I did not expert to find fuch alTeitions as the following : <' Los Indios vencidos fon los mas cobardes y pufilanimes que fe peuden ver : Se hacen inocentes, le hu- millan hafta el defprecio, difculpan fu inconliderado arrojo, y con las fuplicas y los ruegos dan feguras pruebus de fu pufilanimidad. 6 lo que refieren las hiftorias de la Conquifta, fobre fus grandes acciones, es en un fendito figurado, 6 el caradler dc eftas gentes no es ahora fegun era cntonces ; pero lo que no tiene dudaes, que las Naciones de la parte Septentrional fubfirten en la mifma libertad que fiempre han tenido, fin haber fido fojuzgados por algun Principe extrano, y que viven fegun fu regimen y coftumbres de toda la vida, fin que haya habido motivo para que muden de carader ; y en eftos fe ve lo mifmo, que fucede en los del Peru, y de toda la America Meridional, reducidos, y que nunca lo han eftado." Noticias Americanas, Entretenioiiento xviii. §. i. Don UUoa here admits, that the authors who have defcribed the Indians of South America, before they were enflaved, had rcprefented them as a brave people, and therefore feems to have fufpcdled that the cowardice which he had obferved in thofe of the prefent race might be the effeft of fubjugation. But, fuppofmg the Indians of North America to be cowards alfo, he concludes the anceftors of thofe South America to have been fo too, and therefore that thofc authors have given fi£lions for truth. He was probably not acquainted him- felf with the Indians of North Ameriga, and had formed his opinion of them from hear-fay. Great numbers of French, of Englifli, and of Americans, are perfedlly acquainted with thefe people. Had he had an opportunity of en- quiring of any of thefe, they would have told him, that there never was an