sage which
must needs be disagreeable to the ears of free-born men, who acknowledge
no superior upon earth, you may thus report the sentiments of the
Arabians to him that sent you. You may tell him that, as to the land
which we inhabit, it is neither the gift of him nor any of his
forefathers; we hold it from our ancestors, who received it in turn from
theirs, by the common laws of nature, which has adapted particular
countries and soils, not only to man, but to all the various animals
which she has produced. If, therefore, your king imagines that he has a
right to retain the country which he and his people now inhabit, by the
same tenure do the Arabians hold the sovereignty of these barren sands,
where the bones of our ancestors have been buried, even from the first
foundation of the world. But you have described to us, in pompous
language, the extraordinary power and riches of your king; according to
you, he not only commands numerous and well-appointed troops of warlike
men, furnished with every species of military stores, but he also
possesses immense heaps of gold, silver, and other precious commodities,
and his country affords him an inexhaustible supply of corn, and oil,
and wine, and all the other conveniences of life. If, therefore, these
representations be false, you must appear a vain and despicable babbler,
who, being induced by no sufficient reason, have come hither of your own
accord to amuse us--a plain and simple race of men--with specious tales
and fables; but, if your words be true, your king must be equally unjust
and foolish, who, already possessing all these advantages, doth still
insatiably grasp after more; and, enjoying so many good things with ease
and security to himself, will rather put them to all the hazard than
repress the vain desires of his own intolerable avarice. As to the
tribute which you have demanded, what you have already seen of the
Arabians and their country affords you a sufficient answer. You see that
we have neither cities, nor fields, nor rivers, nor wine, nor oil; gold
and silver are equally unknown among us; and the Arabians, abandoning
all these things to other men, have, at the same time, delivered
themselves from the necessity of being slaves, which is the general law
by which all mortals retain their possession. We have, therefore,
nothing which we can send as a tribute but the sand of these our
deserts, and the arrows and lances with which we have hitherto defended
them