distance from the Oronoko, whom laziness or fear prevent from coming abroad.

Marriages of the Indians.

Marriage, an institution coeval with the world, is found established among the Indians. With them, however, it has no connection with religion; as there is nothing implied in it which bears any relation to the divinity; nay, polygamy profanes the sanctity which naturally belongs to it, and diminishes the felicity which it is calculated to confer. There is no law amongst them to prohibit marriage between near relations, and yet there appears no instance of incestuous union sanctioned by the name of marriage.

In this transaction the father has no controul over the will of his son; but he exercises an absolute controul over that of his daughter. She must always blindly give her hand to the spouse, or rather the master whom her father destines for her. Instead of giving a dowry with his daughter, he receives one from his new son-in-law, who pays it in labour, game, fish, or some other articles. The whole ceremony of marriage consists in dancing and drinking

to excess.

Amongst the Indians of Terra-Firma, the relations, neighbours and friends of both spouses were invited. The men who attended, carried the wood and straw necessary for building the hut destined for the young couple; the women presented to the bride as much fish, fruit, bread and liquor, as was necessary for the celebration of the marriage; the men sung an Epi

thalamium to the bride groom and the women to the bride; they danced and sang till night; and as soon as darkness succeeded the light of day, they presented the bride to the husband, and the ceremony was closed. The piaches had no right with respect to the first wives, who were exclusively legitimate; those whom they afterwards married were only adoptive or supernumerary. Men of distinction amongst them were very delicate with regard to their first alliance. To be worthy the hand of a chief, the wife must be descended of a family distinguished by the military exploits, or other remarkable actions, of some of her

ancestors.

Upon the borders of the Oronoko, these sorts of ceremonies are nearly the same. The only difference is in the kind of Epithalamia which some old dames sing to the young brides. Ah! my daughter, says one of them, what torment thou preparest for thyself! Hadst thou foreseen them, thou wouldst not have married. Ah! says another, couldst thou have believed, that in the conjugal state, thou wouldst pass a single moment without shedding tears of blood? The pains of childbed, says a third, are nothing compared to those with which thy husband shall afflict thee; he shall be thy tyrant and thou shalt be his victim.

Deplorable situation of the Women of Oronoko.

These predictions are but too well fulfilled; for besides what the women have to suffer amongst the

savages in general, those of the Oronoko experience a treatment elsewhere unparalelled. The day of her nuptials is the last that a female of Oronoko has not to lament the unhappy lot of her sex. All domestic labours without exception form her task. The toil of culture and harvest must be performed by her hands. Neither the embarrassments of pregnancy, nor the duty of suckling her children, exempt her from any part of the painful toils which are imposed. by the matrimonial state. She stands exposed to the heat of a scorching sun, to the torrents which rush from the sky, and she mingles her blood with her sweat, whilst her barbarous husband, supinely reclining in his hammock, smokes his segar, and copiously regales himself with spirituous liquors, without addressing a single word to his companion exhausted with fatigue. What do I say? this unfortunate creature is not only excluded from partaking of the repast which she has herself prepared, but, standing silently by him, she waits till her oppressor has finished his meal, in order to feed on the fragments. What an infamous abuse of the right of the stronger! European women, and particularly you, women of France, caressed in your infancy, adored in your youth, and respected in your old age, accustomed to be the life and object of pleasure, to distribute chains. which the greatest heroes are proud to carry, to extend your protection to men, instead of being oblito court theirs, be grateful to the progress of civilization, for the vast difference between your state and that of the women of Oronoko.

The Otomaques are the only Indians who allow their women to join in their public diversions, but, notwithstanding they indulge them at intervals in this particular, yet, with respect to domestic drudgery, they place them upon the same footing with the rest of their country women.

Polygamy.

They are likewise the only Indians who have not admitted of polygamy. Among them every husband is confined to one wife; and what is extraor dinary, young men are always married to old women, and old men to young girls; for houshold affairs, in their opinion, are better managed, when the inexperience of youth is put under the direction of the prudence of old age.

All the other Indians take as many wives as they think proper, and their number does not in the smallest degree tend to mitigate the misery and oppression of their abject situation; it seems to be the whole object of their lives to support their common husband in idleness and drunkenness. The chiefs have most wives; and amongst some nations they are the only persons who have more than one.

Divorce.

It would not be expected that men, who entertain the most sovereign contempt for women, should attach much value to their fidelity, for, according to a maxim commonly received on the subject of love,

jealousy is an indication of ardent attachment. Yet, by a fatality inseparable from the lot of the Indian women, the same man who discovers no charm in their persons, punishes them for being able for a moment to engage the partiality of another. Amongst the Caribbees, both delinquents are publicly put to death by the people; but amongst the greater part of other nations, the offended husband retaliates on the wife of the offender, and the revenge falls nothing short of the offence.

Exchange of Women.

There are some nations to be seen, where husbands exchange wives with one another for a limited time, at the expiration of which time they take them back again without the smallest difficulty arising between the contracting parties.

Education of Children.

The manners of the Indians sufficiently indicate what sort of education fathers bestow upon their children; it is sufficient to have seen what bad husbands they are, to be able to judge what bad fathers they must prove. From the tenderness which they manifest for their children in their earlier days, one' would think they were no strangers to parental affection, and were sensible of the duties imposed by the paternal character; but these demonstrations have no other motive than fear lest their offspring should die in childhood. As soon as