The Chinese play night and day, till they have lost all they are worth, and then they usually go and hang themselves.

In the newly discovered islands of the Pacific Ocean, they venture even their hatchets, which they hold as invaluable acquisitions, on running matches.

We saw a man, says Cooke, in his last voyage, beating his breast and tearing his hair in the violence of rage, for having lost three hatchets at one of these races, and which he had purchased with nearly half of his property." But it is not necessary to go beyond our own country for a confirmation of these evils.

Civilized as we are beyond all the people who have been mentioned, and living where the Christian religion is professed, we have the misfortune to see our own countrymen engaged in similar pursuits, and equally to the disturbance of the tranquillity of their minds, and equally to their own ruin.

They cannot, it is true, stake their personal liberty, because they can neither sell themselves, nor be held as slaves.