ple to discover
and improve its infinite productiveness.

They were indolent, careless, and improvident. Great enterprises were
above or below them. Political interests, and the questions concerning
national dominion, were too exciting to charm their gentle natures.
Their intelligence was, of course, not of the highest order: but they
had no use for learning--literature was out of place in the
wilderness--the pursuit of letters could have found no sympathy, and for
solitary enjoyment, the Frenchman cultivates nothing. Life was almost
altogether sensuous: and, though their morals were in keeping with their
simplicity, existence to them was chiefly a physical matter. The
fertility of the soil, producing all the necessaries of life with a
small amount of labor, and the amenity of the climate, rendering
defences against winter but too easy, encouraged their indolence, and
soothed their scanty energy.

"They made no attempt," said one[76] who knew them well, "to acquire
land from the Indians, to organize a social system, to introduce
municipal regulations, or to establish military defences; but cheerfully
obeyed the priests and the king's officers, and enjoyed the present
without troubling their heads about the future. They seem to have been
even careless as to the acquisition of property, and its transmission to
their heirs. Finding themselves in a fruitful country, abounding in
game--where the necessaries of life could be procured with little
labor--where no restraints were imposed by government, and neither
tribute nor personal service was exacted, they were content to live in
unambitious peace and comfortable poverty. They took possession of so
much of the vacant land around them, as they were disposed to till, and
no more. Their agriculture was rude: and even to this day, some of the
implements of husbandry and modes of cultivation, brought from France a
century ago, remain unchanged by the march of mind or the hand of
innovation. Their houses were comfortable, and they reared fruits and
flowers, evincing, in this respect, an attention to comfort and luxury,
which has not been practised by the English and American first
settlers. But in the accumulation of property, and in all the essentials
of industry, they were indolent and improvident, rearing only the bare
necessaries of life, and living from generation to generation without
change or improvement."

"They reared fruits and flowers," he says; and this simple fact