hazard, by an attempt to examine the country in which he
lives, with a view to increafe commerce or knowiege 4 it is
Hot lawful to rifk the life o f our own people in carrying on
commerce with countries already known. I f it be faid that
the x'ifk o f life in our own people is voluntary, and that the
Indian Is brought into danger without his confent, the con-
fequence will ftill fo llow ; for it is univerfally agreed, at
leaft upon the principles o f Chriftianity, that men have no
more right over their own lives than over the lives of others,
and fuicide being deemed the worlt fpedes o f murder, a
man mull be proportionably criminal in expofing his own
life , for1 any purpofe that would not juftdfy his expofing the
life of another. I f the gratification of artificial wants, or the
increafe o f knowiege, are juftifiable caufes for the rifk o f life,
the landing by force on a newly difcovered country, in order
to examine its produce, may be juftified; i f not, every
trade and profeffion that expofes life for advantages o f the
fame kind is un law fu l; and by what trade or profeffion is
not life expofed ? Let us examine all the multitudes that art
has employed, from the refiner who fweats at the furnace to
the fedentary artificer who grows pale at the loom, and perhaps
none can be found in which life is not in fome degree
•facrificed to the artificial neceffities of civil fociety. But will
i t therefore be faid, that civil fociety, to which this facrifice
is made, is for that reafon a combination contrary to the
great original principles o f morality, which are the bails of
all duty? Will it be faid, that to exercife the faculties which
are the diilinguifhing chara^Seriftks o f our nature is unnatural
? and that being endowed with the various powers
which in civil focieties only can be brought into action, it
was incongruhHSToi the will of our Creator that any fuch
fociety. fhould be forined, and that it would be pleaiing to
•him if, ftill continuing in a.favage ftate, thefe powers flioulci
lie
C E K E R A L IN T R O DU C T IO N . x like
torpid in our nature, like life in an eifibrio, during the
whole o f our exiftence? This furely muff appear extrava--
gant and abfurd in the higheft degree, efpeeially as it muft
be allowed,- that although commeree and arts in fome in-
ftances expofe life, in others they preferve it ; • they fupply
the wants o f Nature, without rapine and violence, and by
producing a common intcreft, they prevent the-inhabitants
o f the fame country from being divided into different! clans,
which among, favagesareaknoft perpetually committinghof-
tilities againft eachother,, with a ferocious cruelty which is not*
to be found where civil government and literary knowiege!
have meliorated the manners o f mankind. Upon the whole,
therefore, it feems reafonable to conclude; that the increafe:
of knowiege and commerce are-ultimately common benefits
; and that the lofs of-life which happens in the attempt,
is among the partial evils which terminate in general good.
I have now only to requeft o f fuch o f my Readers as may
be difpofed to cenfure me for not having attributed any o f
the critical efeapes from danger that I have recorded,, to the
particular interpofition of Providence,, that they would, in
this particular, allow me the right o f private judgment»-
w h ich l claim with the greater confidence,, as the very fame-
principle which would have determined them to have done-
it, has determined me to the contrary. As Sf firmly believe
the divine precept delivered by the Author of Chriftianity,.
“ there is not a fparrow falls to t-he ground without my Father,”
and cannot admit the agency of chance-in the government
of the world, I muft neceffarily refer every event to one*
caufe, as well the danger as the efcape, as well the fufferings
as the enjoyments of life: and for this opinion, I have, among;
other refpeiStable authorities, that of the Bible. Shall we; fays.
Job, “ receive good from the hand of God and fhall we not receive
evil?” TheSupremcBc'ing is-equally wife'and benevolent
in;