No. 7

delivered in so pathetic manner as would almost make us believe that they were equal to the primitive Christians did we not know them. On the other hand, should you appear to be dubious concerning their faith or honour, they will exert themselves to the full extent of their reasoning faculties, and solicit with such unremitting assiduity, that a person is often at a loss to find out arguments forcible enough to refute their reasonings; and it frequently happens that they get the better of many merely by their great loquacity. But no sooner are they gone than they praise their own capacity in having been able to dupe the white people. It is an incontrovertible fact that if necessity did not oblige them to hunt the Beaver to supply their wants, the debts they contract on principles of honesty would never be paid by them. Although if the reverse be the case, which seldom happens, those, that may chance to owe them, are never left at peace until they have paid; and should they be refused payment

[25]