their great poverty. The anfwers they made to our queftions were
iiot fo frank and plain as might have been expefted from fuch
fimpletons. The paffions which fo often make men of fenfe a d
like fools, Sometimes:give art and addrefs to the moil ftupid ; and
there is none of thofe paffions fo much adapted to produce effeds
of this kind as felfiihnefs, and an anxious intereft to proted property.
Wh en the kings of the North, animated by a fpirit of religion
and piety, fent miffionaries into thofe forlorn regions to preach
the Gofpel and propagate the Chriftian religion, the miffionaries
did not only make the poor natives pay the expences of their
journey, but alfo gave them to underftand th a t they were to be remunerated
for their trouble. T h a t wandering people had hitherto
lived without pneils, and without any kind of burthen ; in fad,
becaufe they were too poor to pay to the exigencies, o f {late. They
worfhipped in their own way, ju il how and when they pleafed, a
number o f gods, who coil them nothing, except now and then a
• facrifice, which they themlelves'ate up, and of which they left
nothing to their deities but the bones and horns.
At firit, it may be prefumed, they were not a little chagrined
a t being called on to fhare their wealth with ilrangers, whom they
conceived they could do very well without. Being weak, from
indolence and idlenels, as well as natural conftitution, djfperfed,
difunited by their manner of life, attached only to their herds,
and incapable of combining among themlelves, in order to form
any plan of oppofition and relillance, they lubmiffively, and with-,
out reludance, believed whatever the prieits deemed proper to
tell them, and tamely and indolently gave up a part o f their good
things in order to preferve the reft. The priefts, on the other
hand, followed the fame principles in Lapland, no doubt, as in
other countries, and were not more zealouily concerned for the
Salvation of fouls, than careful that no one Should go without the
benefit of their inftrufhions, who poflefied fome hundreds of reindeer.
The poor ignorant Laplanders paid with tolerable patience
the contributions required by the miffionaries, who promifed
them happineis in another world, which probably, according to
their limited conceptions, would eonfift in drinking brandy from
morning to night. Nothing opens men’s eyes fo effedlually as
their interefts ; and on what account, or by what rule o f right or
reafob, they are compelled to lhare their property with the com-
miflfaries of government, from whofe police, laws, and juftice,
they derived no manner of advantage, is a matter of which they
have no conception. In fait, they lbok upon rulers and their
eommiflaries in no other light than that of robbers, who like to
live in eafe and luxury, at the expence of others, without taking,
the trouble, like themfelves, of following the rein-deer, or even
being at the pains either of fiihing or hunting. They have no
idea of the utility of vifitors from whom they derive no protection
or benefit,, and whom they confider merely as men who eat
and drink, and confume the fubftance of hundreds of other men.
Such are the notions entertained by the true, or vagabond Laplanders,
who remain in their native deferts, and who, fliut up in their
mountains,