“In the evening we examined our friend Bearskin concerning the religion of his country, and he explained it to us, without any of that reserve to which his nation is subject. He told us he believed there was one supreme God, who had several subaltern deities under him. And that this Master-God made the world a long time ago. That He told the sun, the moon and stars their business in the beginning, which they, with good looking after, have faithfully perform’d ever since. That the same Power that made all things at first has taken care to keep them in the same method and motion ever since. He believed God had form’d many worlds before He form’d this, but that those worlds either grew old or ruinous, or were destroy’d for the dishonesty of the inhabitants. That God is very just and very good--ever well pleas’d with those men who possess those God-like qualities. That He takes good people under His safe protection, makes them very rich, fills their bellies plentifully, preserves them from sickness and from being surpriz’d or overcome by their enemies. But all such as tell lies and cheat * * * He never fails to punish with sickness, poverty and hunger, and after all that, suffers them to be knockt on the head and scalpt by those that fight against them. He believed that after death both good and bad people are conducted by a strong guard into a great road, in which departed souls travel together for some time till, at a certain distance this road forks into two paths[276], the one extremely levil, the other stony and mountainous. Here the good are parted from the bad by a flash of lightning, the first being hurry’d away to the right, the other to the left. The right hand road leads to a charming warm country, where the spring is everlasting, and every month is May; and as the year is always in its youth, so are the people, and particularly the women are bright as the stars, and never scold. That in this happy climate there are deer, turkeys, elk, and buffaloes innumerable, perpetually fat and gentle, while the trees are loaded with delicious fruit quite throughout the four seasons. That the soil brings forth corn spontaneously, without the curse of labour, and so very wholesome, that none who have the happiness to eat of it are ever sick, grow old or dy. Near the entrance into this blessed land sits a venerable old man on a mat richly woven, who examins strictly all that are brought before him, and if they have behav’d well, the guards are order’d to open the crystal gate and let them enter the land of delights. The left hand path is very rugged and uneven, leading to a dark and barren country, where it is always winter. The ground is the whole year round cover’d with snow, and nothing is seen upon the trees but icicles.