I'ay fait voir dans mes lettres precedentes combien les Sauuages sont vindicatifs enuers leurs ennemis, auec quelle rage & quelle cruauté ils les traittent, les mageants apres leur auoir fait souffrir tout ce qu'vn demon incarné pourroit inuenter, cette fureur est commune aux femmes, aussi bien qu'aux hommes; voire mesme elles les surpassent en ce poinct. I'ay dit qu'ils mangent les poux qu'ils trouuent sur eux, non pour aucun goust qu'ils y trouuẽt, mais pource qu'ils veulent mordre ceux qui les mordent. I have shown in my former letters how vindictive the Savages are toward their enemies, with what fury and cruelty they treat them, eating them after they have made them suffer all that an incarnate fiend could invent. This fury is common to the women as well as to the men, and they even surpass the latter in this respect. I have said that they eat the lice they find upon themselves, not that they like the taste of them, but because they want to bite those that bite them. Ce peuple est fort peu touché de compassion, quand quelqu'vn est malade dans leurs Cabanes, ils ne laissent pas pour l'ordinaire de crier, de tempester, & de faire autant de bruit, cõme si tout le monde estoit en santé; ils ne sçauent que c'est de prendre soin d'vn pauure malade, & de luy donner des viandes qui luy sont bonnes: s'il demande à boire, on luy en donne, s'il demande à manger, on luy en presente, sinon on le laisse là: de l'inuiter auec amour & charité, c'est vn langage qu'ils n'entendent pas; tant qu'vn malade pourra manger, ils le porteront [112] ou le traisneront auec eux; cesse-il de manger, ils croient que c'est fait de sa vie, ils le mettent à mort, tant pour le deliurer du mal qu'il endure, que pour se soulager de la peine qu'ils ont de le porter quand ils vont en quelqu'autre endroit. I'ay admiré auec cõpassion la patiẽce des malades que j'ay veu parmi eux. These people are very little moved by compassion. When any one is sick in their Cabins, they ordinarily do not cease to cry and storm, and make as much noise as if everybody were in good health. They do not know what it is to take care of a poor invalid, and to give him the food which is good for him; if he asks for something to drink, it is given to him, if he asks for something to eat, it is given to him, but otherwise he is neglected; to coax him with love and gentleness, is a language which they do not understand. As long as a patient can eat, they will carry [112] or drag him with them; if he stops eating, they believe that it is all over with him and kill him, as much to free him from the sufferings that he is enduring, as to relieve themselves of the trouble of taking him with them when they go to some other place. I have both admired and pitied the patience of the invalids whom I have seen among them.