cles had hitherto
impeded their progress, that had broken down their energies, or impaired
their constancy and fidelity?

They knew that their brethren had severed the chains of Egyptian
bondage; had crossed in safety the arm of the Red Sea; had sojourned for
years in the wilderness; had encamped near Mount Sinai, and had
possessed themselves of the Holy Land.

They remembered the kingdoms of Judah and Israel in all their glory;
they had witnessed the erection and destruction of their Temple; they
had fought and conquered with the Medes, the Assyrians, the Persians,
the Greeks, and the Romans. They had encountered sufferings upon
sufferings unmoved; had bowed their necks submissively to the yoke.

Kings, conquerors, nations, Christians, Mahometans, and Heathens, all
had united in the design of destroying the nation; but they never
despaired--they knew they were the elect and chosen of the Lord. The
oath, that He never would abandon his people, had been fulfilled 3,500
years, and, therefore, with the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by
night, they abandoned the Heathens and the Persian territory, passed the
confines of Tartary and China, and, no doubt, through great sufferings,
reached the north-eastern coast of Asia, and came in sight of that
continent, wherein, as they had reason to believe, "mankind never before
had dwelt."

On the discovery of America by Columbus, and the discoveries subsequent
to his time, various tribes of Indians or savages were found to inhabit
this our continent, whose origin was unknown.

It is, perhaps, difficult for the human mind to decide on the character
and condition of an extreme savage state. We can readily believe that
children abandoned in infancy in a savage country, and surviving this
abandonment, to grow up in a state of nature, living on herbs and
fruits, and sustaining existence as other wild animals, would be stupid,
without language, without intellect, and with no greater instinct than
that which governs the brute creation. We can conceive nothing reduced
to a more savage condition; with cannibal propensities, an ungovernable
ferocity, or a timid apprehension, there can be but a link that
separates them from other classes of animal creation. So with herds of
men in a savage state, like herds of buffalo or wild horses on our
prairies, they are kept together by sounds common amongst themselves,
and are utterly unacquainted with the landmarks of civilisation.

This,