But whatever cruelties they practise on their female captives, they are never known to take the slightest liberty with them bordering on indecency.  Mary Rowlandson, a fanatic, who was captured in 1765, has the following passage in her narrative: 

“I have been in the midst of these roaring lions, and savage bears, that neither fear God, man, nor devil, by day and night, alone, and in company, sleeping all sorts together, and yet not one of them offered me the least abuse of unchastity, in word or action!”

Charlevoix, in his account of the Canadian Indians, says, there is no example of their having taken the least liberty with any of the french women, even when their prisoners.  In short, all accounts allow them this extraordinary male virtue, but differ whether it proceeds from education, or what the french call temperament.

But as they do not look upon chastity as a necessary requisite in the character of the squaws before marriage, these ladies are said by the white traders to be less eminent for this virtue than their warriors.

The works of F——­ being little known in England, I send you some specimens of his writing on indian subjects; and, however uncouth, his language may appear, you may rely on the truth and accuracy of his descriptions:—­

THE INDIAN STUDENT; or, FORCE OF NATURE.

RURA MIHI ET RIGUI PLACEANT IN VALLIBUS AMNES; ILUMINA AMEM, SYLVASQUE INGLORIUS.

Virg.  Georg. 2d. v. 483.

* * * * *

From Susquehanna’s utmost springs,
  Where savage tribes pursue their game,
His blanket tied with yellow strings,
  A shepherd of the forest came.

Not long before, a wandering priest
  Express’d his wish with visage sad—­
‘Ah, why,’ he cry’d, ’in Satan’s waste,
  ’Ah, why detain so fine a lad?

’In Yanky land there stands a town
  ’Where learning may be purchas’d low—­
’Exchange his blanket for a gown,
  ‘And let the lad to college go.’

From long debate the council rose,
  And viewing Shalum’s tricks with joy,
To Harvard hall[1], o’er wastes of snows,
  They sent the copper-colour’d boy.
[Footnote 1:  Harvard college, at Cambridge, near Boston.]

One generous chief a bow supply’d,
  This gave a shaft, and that a skin;
The feathers, in vermilion dy’d,
  Himself did from a turkey win: 

Thus dress’d so gay, he took his way
  O’er barren hills, alone, alone! 
His guide a star, he wander’d far,
  His pillow every night a stone.

At last he came, with leg so lame,
  Where learned men talk heathen Greek,
And hebrew lore is gabbled o’er,
  To please the muses, twice a week.

A while he writ, a while he read,
  A while he learn’d the grammar rules.—­
An indian savage, so well bred,
  Great credit promis’d to their schools.