ca, being fupinely idle at home, fubject their wives and their flaves to every fort of drudgery, fuch as digging, sowing, reaping, cutting wood, grinding corn, fetching water, &c. Thefe poor creatures are fuffered to toil in the fields and woods, ready to faint with exceffive labour; while the monsters of men, will not give themfelves the trouble even of training animals for work, tho' they have the example of the Portuguese before their eyes. It is the bufinefs of the women among the wandering Arabs of Africa, to card, fpin, and weave, and to manage other household affairs. They milk the cattle, grind, bake, brew, dress the victuals, and bring home wood and water. They even take care of their husband's horfes, feed, curry, comb, bridle, and faddle them. They would alfo be obliged, like Moorish wives, to dig, fow, and reap their corn; but luckily for them the Arabs live entirely upon plunder. Father Jofeph Gumilla, in his account of a country in South America, bordering upon the great river Oroonoko, defcribes pathetically the miferable flavery of married women there; and mentions a practice, that would appear incredible to

one

one unacquainted with that country, which is, that married women frequently destroy their female infants. A married woman, of a virtuous character and good understanding, having been guilty of that crime, was reproached by our author in bitter terms. She heard him patiently with eyes fixed on the ground; and answered as follows. "I wish to

God, Father, I wish to God, that my "mother had by my death prevented the "manifold diftreffes I have endured, and "have yet to endure as long as I live. "Had fhe kindly ftifled me at birth, I “had not felt the pain of death, nor num"berless other pains that life hath subjected me to. Confider, Father, our deplorable condition. Our husbands go to hunt with their bows and arrows, "and trouble themfelves no farther. We

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are dragged along, with one infant at "the breast, and another in a basket.

They return in the evening without any "burden: we return with the burden of 66 our children; and, tho' tired with a

long march, are not permitted to fleep, "but must labour the whole night, in

66

grinding maize to make chica for

"them.

"them. They get drunk, and in their "drunkenness beat us, draw us by the "hair of the head, and tread us under "foot. And what have we to comfort us "for flavery that has no end? A young "wife is brought in upon us, who is per"mitted to abufe us and our children, "because we are no longer regarded. "Can human nature endure fuch ty

ranny! What kindnefs can we fhow to 6c our female children equal to that of relieving them from fuch oppreffion, more bitter a thousand times than "death? I fay again, would to God that

my mother had put me under ground "the moment I was born." One would readily imagine, that the women of that country fhould have the greatest abhorrence at matrimony: but all-prevailing nature determines the contrary; and the appetite for matrimony overbalances every rational confideration.

Nations polish by degrees; and, from the lowest state to which a human creature can be reduced, women were reftored to their native dignity. Attention to dress is the first symptom of the progress. Male favages, even of the groffelt kind,

are

are fond of drefs. Charlevoix mentions a young American hired as a rower, who adjusted his drefs with care before he entered the boat; and at intervals infpected his looking-glafs, to fee whether violence of motion had not difcompofed the red upon his cheeks. We read not of paffion for drefs in females of fuch savage nations they are too much difpirited to think of being agreeable.. Among nations in any degree humanized, a different fcene opens. In the ifthmus of Darien government has made fome progress, and a chieftain is elected for life: a glimmering of civility appears among the inhabitants; and as fome regard is paid to women, they rival the men in drefs. Both fexes wear rings in their ears and noses ; and are adorned with many rows of shells hanging from the neck. A female in a fultry climate fubmits to fry all day long, under a load of twenty or thirty pounds of fhells; and a male under double that load. Well may they exclaim with Alexander, "Oh Athenians! what do I not ❝endure to gain your approbation." The female Caribbeans and Brasilians, are no lefs fond of ornament than the males. Hottentot

Hottentot ladies strive to outdo each other in adorning their kroffes, and the bag that holds their pipe and tobacco: European ladies are not more vain of their filks and embroideries. Women in Lapland are much addicted to finery. They wear broad girdles, upon which hang chains and rings without end, commonly made of tin, fometimes of filver, weighing perhaps twenty pounds. The Greenlanders are nafty and flovenly, eat with their dogs, make food of the vermin that make food of them, feldom or never wash themfelves; and yet the women, who make fome figure among the men, are gaudy in their drefs. Their chief ornaments are pendants at their ears, with glafs beads of various colours; and they draw lines with a needle and black thread between their eyes, cross the forehead, upon the chin, hands, and legs. The negroes of the kingdom of Ardrah in Guinea, have made a confiderable progrefs in police, and in the art of living. Their women carry drefs and finery to an extravagance. They are cloathed with loads of the finest fatins and chintzes, and are adorned with a profufion of gold. In a fultry climate,