“I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,” says the writer, “visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousand of these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances; and from the very many and decidedly voluntary acts of their hospitality and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country, and treated to the best that they could give me, without any charges made for my board; they have often escorted me through their enemies’ country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage; and under all these circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a blow, or stole from me a shilling’s worth of my property that I am aware of. “This is saying a great deal (and proving it too, if the reader will believe me,) in favour of the virtues of these people; when it is borne in mind, as it should be, that there is no law in the land to punish for theft, that locks and keys are not known in their country, that the commandments have never been divulged amongst them, nor can any human retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgrace which attaches as a stigma to his character in the eyes of the people around him. “And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the absence of all systems of jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace and happiness, and quiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected, and wrongs redressed; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal affection, in the simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have unavoidably formed warm and enduring attachments to some of these men, which I do not wish to forget, who have brought me near to their hearts, and in our final separation have embraced me in their arms, and commended me and my affairs to the keeping of the Great Spirit.”