The famous republics of antiquity never gave examples of more unshaken courage, more haughty spirits, or more intractable love of independence than were hidden in former times among the wild forests of the New World.

*i The Europeans produced no great impression when they landed upon the shores of North America; their presence engendered neither envy nor fear.

What influence could they possess over such men as we have described?
The Indian could live without wants, suffer without complaint, and pour out his death-song at the stake.

*j Like all the other members of the great human family, these savages believed in the existence of a better world, and adored under different names, God, the creator of the universe.
Their notions on the great intellectual truths were in general simple and philosophical.

*k [Footnote i: We learn from President Jefferson's "Notes upon Virginia," p.