excellent in their kinds, that come up the river at the same time. The sturgeon not only furnished them with good part of their food in the summer months, but was pickled or dried for future use or exportation. ------- CHAP. IX. Description of the manner in which the Indian Traders set out on their first adventure. TO return to the boys, as all young men were called here till they married. Thus early trained to a love of sylvan sports, their characters were unfolded by contingencies. In this infant society, penal laws lay dormant, and every species of coercion was unknown. Morals, founded on Christianity, were fostered by the sweet influence of the charities of life. The reverence which children in particular, had for their parents, and the young in general for the old, was the chief bond that held society together. This veneration, being founded on esteem, certainly could only have existed thus powerfully in an uncorrupted community. It had, however, an auxiliary no less powerful. Here, indeed, it might with truth be said, “Love breath’d his infant sighs from anguish free.” In consequence of the singular mode of associating together little exclusive parties of children of both sexes, which has been already mentioned, endearing intimacies, formed in the age of playful innocence, were the precursors of more tender attachments. These were not wrought up to romantic enthusiasm, or extravagant passion, by an inflamed imagination, or by the fears of rivalry, or the artifices of coquetry, yet they had power sufficient to soften the manners and elevate the character of the lover.