put into his hand
both a musket-ball and some small shot, telling him, that those only who
were wounded with the ball would die, and that the others would recover;
at the same time assuring him, that if we were attacked again, we should
certainly defend ourselves with the ball, which would wound them
mortally. Having now taken courage, they came and sat down by us, and,
as tokens of our perfect amity, we made them presents of such trifles as
we happened to have about us.

[Footnote 64: This is a very candid admission, and quite characteristic
of the ordinary race of sailors. They who freely expose their own lives,
as a principle of professional expediency, are not by any means
solicitously sparing of the lives of others, who may happen to disagree
with them on questions of interest and advantage. Even the inferior
officers, and especially those who wish to attract notice in whatever is
reputable, as the means of obtaining promotion, do not in general differ
essentially from the common men. The ingenious midshipman who contrived
so very dexterously to hook the poor savage's backside, would have had
very little difficulty in bringing himself to act the sportsman as a
hunter or shooter as well as a fisher. Indeed there seems much stronger
evidence than mere imagination can supply, for the opinion of Hobbes,
that war is the state of nature to mankind. It is certain at least, that
the love of mischief is very congenial to that part of it, which, on the
whole, receives the least modification of what is natural, from the
restraints of education. The darling dreams of Rousseau, alas! have no
prototype in the history of our species.--E.]

Soon after we re-embarked in our boats, and having rowed to another cove
in the same island, climbed a neighbouring hill, which commanded the
country to a considerable distance. The prospect was very uncommon and
romantic, consisting of innumerable islands, which formed as many
harbours, where the water was as smooth as a mill-pool: We saw also many
towns, scattered houses, and plantations, the country being much more
populous than any we had seen. One of the towns was very near us, from
which many of the Indians advanced, taking great pains to shew us that
they were unarmed, and in their gestures and countenances, expressing
great meekness and humility. In the mean time, some of our people, who,
when the Indians were to be punished for a fraud, assumed the inexorable
justice of a Lycurgus, t