Page images
PDF
EPUB

thefe poor people: the rabble fall upon them like dogs or wolves upon their prey, and begin to torment them. *** Some kick "the flaves, fome cudgel them, fome cut "them with knives, fome tear off their ears, "cut off their nofes or lips, infomuch that "most of them die in this pompous entry.

***When they burn their prifoners, this "is the manner they bind them to pofts

[ocr errors]

by the hands and feet, then they heat "musket-barrels, hatchets, and other iron "inftruments red-hot, and thus apply them "to all parts of their bodies; they tear off "their nails, and pluck out their teeth; they "cut collops of flesh out of their backs, and "often flay their skin off from their skulls: " after all this they throw hot afhes upon "their wounds. But what almost exceeds

r

[ocr errors]

belief, in the midst of these torments the "flaves frequently fing, which exceedingly frets their executioners."

"AN Iroquois," adds my author, "told us "that a flave, whom they had tormented

[ocr errors]

cruelly, faid to them, You have no inge"nuity, you don't know how to torment

your prifoners, you are mere blockheads; "if I had you in my circumftances, I would "use you after another manner: but whilst "he prated fo boldly, a favage woman got "a little iron fpit heated red-hot, and run it

"into this made him roar; but he told "the woman, she was cunning: you, faid he, understand fomething, this is the "course you should take with us." It appears she knew, as Dr. Garth says,

That the fame nerves are fashion'd to fuftain The greatest pleasure and the greatest pain.

"WHEN the flave," continues my author, "which they burn, is dead, they eat

him; but before his death they make their "children drink fome of his blood, to ren"der them cruel and inhuman."

WHAT a mortifying confideration it is, that we are of the fame fpecies with, and fo nearly related to these men, or rather these devils incarnate! But what is still much more mortifying, many Europeans, who pretend to be the most zealous chriftians, are altogether as diabolically cruel as these heathens: this hath partly appeared in the last section, and will probably appear more fully in the progress of these Effays.

A Voyage into North America, p. 92, et feq.

SECTION

SECTION IV.

Cruelty proceeding from ambition comes next under confideration.

ANY are the inftances of ambition having expunged pity, compaffion, and humanity from the heart of man, and in the room of these benign virtues fubftituting cruelty, and divers other destructive vices. What havock has cruelty made, when excited and stimulated by ambition! It has in all ages and nations been the principal motive of offenfive war, that bane of human happiness, and deftroyer of the human fpecies. This paffion armed Cæfar against his country, and him and Alexander, and many fuch tyrants, not against their countries only, but against mankind. When a plague carries off an hundred thousand perfons, it is thought to do great execution; but what is

that

P Alexander the great was a flagrant inftance of this effect of ambition, and other inordinate paffions. Several of his actions, in the early part of his life, evidently shew that he was endowed by nature with many excellent virtues, particularly compaffion and humanity; but ambition, pride, exceffive anger, and immoderate drinking, to which perhaps may be added a habit of fhedding human blood in war, obliterated these virtues, and caufed him frequently to be guilty of cruelty, and many other deteftable vices.

that to the numbers deftroyed by these greater plagues, commonly called heroes? Of Cafar it is recorded, that he flew in battle one million, one hundred and ninety-two thousand men, befides those flaughtered in the civil wars-Of Alexander, who it is probable did not murder fewer of his fellowcreatures, that he wept, after he had, as he vainly and foolishly imagined, conquered the world, because there were no more worlds for him to conquer; that was, to enslave or deftroy.

BUT we have a modern inftance of a late French monarch, who, tho' he did not extend his conquefts fo far as Alexander or Cafar, yet it is probable was not lefs ambitious; and perhaps did as much mischief, and caufed as great defolation, as either of them.

FOR

Let us hear how a fenfible Frenchman (the abbot de Villiers) in his ode upon war describes a true hero :

Loin d'aimer la guerre, il l'abhorre;

En triomphant même il deplore

Les defaftres, qu'elle produit;

Et courroné par la victoire,

Il gemit de fa propre gloire,

Si la paix n'en eft pas le fruit."

The fenfe of which in English, is, that- Far from "being fond of war, he abhors it.

Even in triumphing

"he deplores the evils it occafions; and crowned with

.

victory, he laments his own glory, if peace is not the "fruit it produces."

Fox above fifty years this prince was the grand difturber and incendiary of Europe. When about twenty-two years of age, he was left by his prime minifter in peace with all the world, and foon became so potent and formidable, that he had nothing to fear from the nations round about him. Notwithstanding which, neither the luxurious pleafures of his court, tho' indulged to the greatest height, nor the charms of a young and beautiful wife, to whom he was just married, nor the more prevailing charms of variety of miftreffes, could with-hold him from the most eager and extravagant pursuits of ambition.

UPON a frivolous pretence, he firft began a war against his queen's brother, the king of Spain, whom he very unjustly deprived of part of his dominions. He then, without the leaft provocation, fell upon the Dutch, who were, as they ftyled themselves, the antient and faithful allies of France, and had just mediated a peace between him and Spain. When these poor people, who were in no condition to refift his power, fufpected that his vaft preparations of war were defigned against them, they made the most humble remonftrancés, fubmiffions, and fupplications to avert the danger; but to no purpose, for Lewis had determined their deftruction, and

« PreviousContinue »