But it occurred to my thoughts, what call, what occasion, much less what necessity I was in to go and dip my hands in blood, to attack people who had neither done or intended me any wrong? who, as to me, were innocent, and whose barbarous customs were their own disaster, being in them a token, indeed, of God’s having left them, with the other nations of that part of the world, to such stupidity, and to such inhuman courses, but did not call me to take upon me to be a judge of their actions, much less an executioner of His justice—that whenever He thought fit He would take the cause into His own hands, and by national vengeance punish them as a people for national crimes, but that, in the meantime, it was none of my business—that it was true Friday might justify it, because he was a declared enemy and in a state of war with those very particular people, and it was lawful for him to attack them—but I could not say the same with regard to myself.
Qual diritto, qual cagione, e molto meno qual necessità mi spingeva ad imbrattare le mie mani nel sangue, ad assalire un popolo che nè mi avea offeso, nè avea manifestata veruna intenzione di offendermi? di un popolo che rispetto a me era innocente, e i cui barbari usi erano una sua disgrazia soltanto, un contrassegno dell’abbandono di Dio, che insieme all’altre nazioni di quella parte di globo gli ha lasciati in preda alla loro stupidezza, alla loro inumanità, ma che non ha chiamato me a giudicarne le azioni, e meno a farmi esecutore della sua giustizia? Ben questo Dio avrebbe saputo, quando lo avesse giudicato opportuno, castigar quelle genti siccome popolo, e per delitti nazionali esercitare una nazionale vendetta; ma questo non era mio uffizio.