31 “Nature has willed that every
man’s children and kindred should be his dearest objects. Yet these are torn
from us by conscriptions to be slaves elsewhere. Our wives and our sisters,
even though they may escape violation from the enemy, are dishonoured under the
names of friendship and hospitality. Our goods and fortunes they collect for
their tribute, our harvests for their granaries. Our very hands and bodies,
under the lash and in the midst of insult, are worn down by the toil of
clearing forests and morasses. Creatures born to slavery are sold once and for
all, and are, moreover, fed by their masters; but Britain is daily purchasing, is
daily feeding, her own enslaved people. And as in a household the last comer
among the slaves is always the butt of his companions, so we in a world long
used to slavery, as the newest and most contemptible, are marked out for
destruction. We have neither fruitful plains, nor mines, nor harbours, for the
working of which we may be spared. Valour, too, and high spirit in subjects,
are offensive to rulers; besides, remoteness and seclusion, while they give
safety, provoke suspicion. Since then you cannot hope for quarter, take
courage, I beseech you, whether it be safety or renown that you hold most
precious. Under a woman’s leadership the Brigantes were able to burn a colony,
to storm a camp, and had not success ended in supineness, might have thrown off
the yoke. Let us, then, a fresh and unconquered people, never likely to abuse
our freedom, show forthwith at the very first onset what heroes Caledonia has in reserve.
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