I Had A Manual In My Pocket,
That Had King David's Picture In It, In One Of His Private Retirements.
The Indian Ask'd Me, Who That Figure Represented?
I told him,
It was the Picture of a good King, that liv'd according to
the Rules of Morality,
Doing to all as he would be done by,
ordering all his Life to the Service of the Creator of all things;
and being now above us all, in Heaven, with God Almighty,
who had rewarded him with all the delightful Pleasures imaginable
in the other World, for his Obedience to him in this; I concluded,
with telling them, that we received nothing here below,
as Food, Raiment, &c. but what came from that Omnipotent Being.
They listened to my Discourse with a profound Silence, assuring me,
that they believ'd what I said to be true. No Man living will ever be able
to make these Heathens sensible of the Happiness of a future State,
except he now and then mentions some lively carnal Representation,
which may quicken their Apprehensions, and make them thirst
after such a gainful Exchange; for, were the best Lecture
that ever was preach'd by Man, given to an ignorant sort of People,
in a more learned Style, than their mean Capacities are able to understand,
the Intent would prove ineffectual, and the Hearers would be left
in a greater Labyrinth than their Teacher found them in.
But dispense the Precepts of our Faith according to the Pupil's Capacity,
and there is nothing in our Religion, but what an indifferent Reason is,
in some measure, able to comprehend; tho' a New-England Minister
blames the French Jesuits for this way of Proceeding, as being
quite contrary to a true Christian Practice, and affirms it to be no ready,
or true Method, to establish a lively Representation of our Christian Belief
amongst these Infidels.
All the Indians hereabouts carefully preserve the Bones of the Flesh
they eat, and burn them, as being of Opinion, that if they omitted
that Custom, the Game would leave their Country, and they should not be able
to maintain themselves by their Hunting. Most of these Indians
wear Mustachoes, or Whiskers, which is rare; by reason the Indians
are a People that commonly pull the Hair of their Faces, and other Parts,
up by the Roots, and suffer none to grow. Here is plenty of Chesnuts,
which are rarely found in Carolina, and never near the Sea, or Salt-Water;
tho' they are frequently in such Places in Virginia.
At the other House, where our Fellow-Travellers lay, they had provided a Dish,
in great Fashion amongst the Indians, which was Two young Fawns,
taken out of the Doe's Bellies, and boil'd in the same slimy Bags
Nature had plac'd them in, and one of the Country-Hares,
stew'd with the Guts in her Belly, and her Skin with the Hair on.
This new-fashion'd Cookery wrought Abstinence in our Fellow-Travellers,
which I somewhat wonder'd at, because one of them made nothing
of eating Allegators, as heartily as if it had been Pork and Turneps.
The Indians dress most things after the Wood-cock Fashion,
never taking the Guts out.
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