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a small dagger, and would have plunged it into her bosom, but the Bucanier chief, seizing her hand, said, "Live, your firmness is your protection; since your heart is so devoted to another, I shall never more attempt to persuade you to become mine."

It would be agreeable to add that Morgan was so touched with this lady's constancy that he restored her to her husband, and rejoiced in their happiness; but this story is a fact, not an agreeable fiction, so it will not end in the reformation of Morgan, or the felicity of the beautiful and virtuous Spanish lady.

Morgan ought to have honoured the principles of this lady, and have made her all the amends in his power; but he did not regard her happiness at all-he hated her-shut her up in a dungeon, and deprived her of every comfort; and she only recovered her liberty when he set fire to Panama, took all the wealth he could obtain, and sailed for Jamaica, leaving the despoiled citizens with their lives only; on his arrival at Jamaica he was hailed by multitudes with admiration.

But notwithstanding this unjust and violent man obtained great wealth by the most unworthy means, it must not be presumed he was therefore happy. He was vulgar, ignorant, sordid, and cruel. How could he be happy? To be wise and virtuous is to be happy, to be refined, intelligent, generous, and just is to be happy. He who is all this, but who has no opulence, and only possesses the innocent pleasures of humble life, with self-esteem, friendship, and peace, knows a happiness which no money can buy, and no poverty deprive him of.

RECAPITULATION.

49

CHAPTER IV.

In the preceding narrative of American History, I have only related the Spanish discoveries and conquests, and some of the consequences of those discoveries. These were principally,-the effects of Spanish colonization upon the natives of the New World, the opinions at the same time entertained by the other nations of Europe in respect to maritime discovery, the right to exclusive possession asserted by the Spaniards, and also some attempts made by other Europeans to share the advantages of the Spanish discoveries.

In respect to the natives of the American continent, I have given some notices of their manners and religion, and have briefly described the Charibs, or Caribbees-the natives of the West India islands,—the Mexicans, and the Peruvians.

My young readers have learned that the character and religion of these tribes were in many particulars different; that they all were ignorant of the arts of civilized white men; and that they were all subdued, reduced to poverty, and almost exterminated by the Spanish conquerors.

If white men always treated savages thus,-deprived them of their property, degraded them to slavery, and gradually diminished their numbers, it would be a sad picture of humanity, and a reason to dread rather than promote the intercourse of civilized men with barbarians. But in the history of VOL. III.-E

the American continent, taken all together, we have a remarkable instance that Christians—those who are truly such can effect the greatest possible good to the most uncultivated of mankind.

To prove this interesting fact, I shall at present relate some particulars of a remote and littlefavoured part of the continent-I mean its eastern and northernmost extremity, called Greenland, for among the Greenlanders this Christian experiment was made. Before I commence the history of Greenland, some information concerning the different races of men which inhabit this globe should be given.

There are five distinct races, or great families of men, who belong to different regions of the world, and who differ in many particulars from each other. These races are, 1st, the Caucasian; 2d, the Mongolian, or Tartar; 3d, the American; 4th, the Negro, or African; 5th, the Malay.

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You must look at a map of the world, or a globe, if you would acquire a distinct idea of these different races of men. Between the Black and Caspian Seas is a range of mountains called the Caucasian. If you should proceed directly south from these mountains you would journey along the Indus and Euphrates till you come to the Persian Gulf.

In that tract of country the first men existed, and the first great nations were formed. The patriarch Abraham, and the Chaldean people, to whom he belonged, dwelt along the Euphrates near its mouth. The Babylonians were a little north along the river. Between its sources and the Tigris were the Assyrians; and the region di

THE CAUCASIAN RACE.

51

rectly east of the Caspian was inhabited by the Parthians.

These nations spread themselves westward and southward to a certain extent. The Phenicians and Jews, the Persians and Egyptians, the Scythians, Greeks, and Romans were all descended from these Caucasians, as those who originated about Caucasus are termed. So you perceive that the modern Persians and Turks, the Arabians and Egyptians, and all the people of Southern Europe, besides the descendants of Europeans in America, are of the Caucasian race.

Why these nations became superior to the other inhabitants of the earth is not known. God is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all; but in his wisdom he has not distributed his gifts equally. Upon this Caucasian race,—upon the men of Western Asia, of Europe, and the descendants of Europeans in every part of the world, he has bestowed superior understanding and greater blessings than to the rest of mankind.

The superiority of the Caucasian race appears in this they have more enterprise than other men. They undertake discoveries, and distribute themselves all over the world. They have more perfect sciences, and more useful arts. Their ships traverse every sea; their books are carried abroad into every nation; their pictures and statues resemble nature herself; and they have better governments and a purer religion than the other races of men.

Still the Caucasian family differs in its members. The Turks, Arabs, and Egyptians,-all nations that embrace the Mohammedan doctrines of reli

gion, exhibit less virtue, and enjoy less happiness, than their European and American brethren; but they are capable of equal improvement, and the Turks and Egyptians are now attempting to at

tain it.

The second of the great families is the Mongolian, or Tartar. This includes the Tartars, Chinese, and Japanese, and extends to the Arctic Ocean, including the Laplanders in Europe, the Samoeides in Asiatic Russia, the Kamschadales, and the northern inhabitants of the European continent, these last comprising the Esquimaux and Greenlanders.

The Mongolian family are generally less sensible and civilized than the Caucasians,-except, perhaps, that the Chinese excel the Turks and the Arabs in some respects. They are comparatively quiet nations, who dwell or wander about in their respective territories, seldom passing beyond them.

The Tartars, however, in times past have been more adventurous than the other Mongolians. They have sometimes in great numbers devastated India and Persia, and have penetrated to Egypt; and under one of their terrible chiefs, Attila, once ravaged Europe as far as Italy.

The conquests of Tartars and Huns resembled flights of locusts-they destroyed and devoured, but they established nothing; and when there was nothing left to devour and destroy, they withdrew, and dispersed themselves. Modern Europe has no fear of any Tartar irruption in the present age of the world.

In northern regions, along the borders of the Arctic Ocean, vegetation is scant; winter is long

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