I cannot however dismiss my Readers to the following narratives, without expressing the regret with which I have recorded the destruction of poor naked savages, by our firearms, in the course of these expeditions, when they endeavoured to repress the invaders of their country; a regret which I am confident my Readers will participate with me: this however appears to be an evil which, if discoveries of new countries are attempted, cannot be avoided: resistance will always be made, and if those who resist are not overpowered, the attempt must be relinquished. It may perhaps be said, that the expence of life upon these occasions is more than is necessary to convince the natives that further contest is hopeless, and perhaps this may sometimes have been true: but it must be considered, that if such expeditions are undertaken, the execution of them must be intrusted to persons not exempt from human frailty; to men who are liable to provocation by sudden injury, to unpremeditated violence by sudden danger, to error by the defect of judgment or the strength of passion, and always disposed to transfer laws by which they are bound themselves, to others who are not subject to their obligation; so that every excess thus produced is also an inevitable evil.

If it should be said, that supposing these mischiefs to be inevitable in attempting discoveries, discoveries ought not to be attempted; it must be considered, that upon the only principles on which this opinion can be supported, the risk of life, for advantages of the same kind with those proposed in discovering new countries, is in every other instance unlawful. If it is not lawful to put the life of an Indian in

Voyaging Accounts