dustry reared structures, contentment gladdened every heart and social felicity seemed indeed to have descended from heaven to earth. Such was the happy state of things, when the Spanish conqueror of Peru, the cruel spoiler, came, blasted this blooming Eden, and brought death and woe into this fairest part of the new world.

In general, however, the state of society and of government partakes of the most entire equality, of which we are able to conceive, consistent with any social regulations, of human restraints. There is not a people on earth who have higher notions of freedom. There is no such thing among them as legal coercion. Fierce as the savage behaves towards his enemies. yet at home he is remarkable for indulgence and mildness. In the most retired circle, he seldom acts the tryant. The father of the family exercises scarcely any thing of what we call parental authority. Even his children are saucy and bold and entirely ungoverned. What we mean by the words, inferiors and superiors, would scarcely be intelligible to them. None of the distinctions of more polished life elevate a few and depress many among them. Great respect indeed is paid to age; and, while the old men speak, silence and attention express the reverence due to them from the whole assembly. But even the aged can only advise; and they never dictated, never command. Their influence may be great; but still it is entirely personal, derived from no appendage either of power or of office.

No where did a perfect equality prevail more than among the original natives of New-England. But it was an equality of rights rather than of rank. They had kings, and the nearest relations succeeded to the government; but still the authority was parental, and public ministers did little more than express the public sense of what was right to be done. Sometimes, several kings were combined into one empire, but still they were revered and beloved. No hated despot arose to oppress the people. The kings took care of the aged, the widow and the fatherless; and what distinguished them was a spirit of more extensive beneficence.

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The laws of savages are few, because they have few ob jects of interest to regulate. They have no constitution, code of laws, no judiciary system, no written document. All proceedings are regulated by a present sense of fitness, and by an immediate regard to utility.

As savages live almost in common, individuals can hav few violent contentions with each other. Interest, which seems to sway the whole civilized world, is scarcely felt as a private concern. The selfish passions, which are the great disturbers of our world, are nearly dormant in the savage breast. While the whole tribe possesses a plenty, no private person is allowed to want. Every thing is of a public concern. Every thing proceeds prosperously with the individual, when his whole tribe is safe, when the extent of its territory is not abridged, and no public hostility is feared. Private interests with them are thus immerged in the public good, while the selfish passions are rocked to sleep.

Such was the state of society, when America was discovered. There is no proof, that either society or government were ever among them more perfect than at that period. Both began to decay, as soon as the Europeans came among them. The ignorant mind of the savage was then distracted with what he saw. Every thing from the eastern world was novel and alluring; nor was it easy to decide at first, whether a connection would be dangerous or profitable. When the natives saw their errors and their perils, it was too late to avoid them. The chains, which had been put upon them, were riveted to their ruin. Diseases to torture the body and vices to distress the mind were imported from Europe, to which the natives fell easy and unresisting victims. Deplorable as the savage state was, the white people soon made it worse, and added to it a flood of corruptions. This fact is obvious from the circumstance of the Indians disappearing at the approach of the Europeans. The natives seemed to perish as before a dreadful pestilence. Their most populous places became so many deserts. The sword and sickness and famine might have devoured many; but despair, spiritous liquors, loss of territory, and many other causes, not yet sufficiently investigated, destroyed more. They are still hastening down to destruction with rapid strides; and a proportional waste will, in two or three centuries, complete the extinction of that race, at least within the limits of the United States. Pitying humanity as well as a philosophical spirit, to say nothing of justice and religion, will lead our government to retard, if it cannot prevent, this career to destruction, while sound policy does not forbid its interposition in their favor.

The causes, which deranged their state of society, which precipitated their government to ruin, broke their spirits, and arrested the progress of population, are numerous; some of which are extremely obvious, and others deserving a more perfect investigation. A small number possessing a large territory, where they seldom saw each other, and when, intent on game, they seldom improved by a communication of their thoughts, was a state of society, which tended to destroy the very means of mental culture, and to leave them ignorant and barbarous. Men must live together in large cities, before their minds will be much cultivated, or manners highly polished. The individuals of different nations must have frequent intercourse, before national prejudices will cease to exist, and humanity have its proper dominion in the hearts of men. Whatever extends and enlarges our views of men and things will serve to liberalize our minds, add new vigor to our social feelings and aggrandize our sentiments. Whatsoever calls men together in vast assemblies, although improprieties cannot always be prevented, yet advantages will usually arise more than sufficient to balance the evils experienced.

The Indian tribes were hostile to each other, and were apt to trespass on hunting grounds which were not their own, whenever the sight of game animated the chase. So infrequent was intercourse between tribes, that, too often, to see a stranger was considered as seeing an enemy. As every thing belonged to the whole tribe or community, so there was little to encourage personal exertions. The selfish passion, had well nigh ceased to operate, and of course excitements to labor and industry were few. There was no coercion to rouse the languid, no public authority but general opinion, and little more than a spirit of personal revenge to restrain the criminal. The universal passion was that of war; and war in its worst storm, that of extermination. Conquest itself, when it spared the foe, was a consolidation of different tribes, and was sure to bring together various elements which could ill agree with each other. In their rude state of knowl

edge, the boundaries of the lands they claimed were ill defined; and this uncertainty afforded occasions of frequent warfare, where force instead of right, was called in to make the decision.

Such a state of society, scarcely worthy of the name, hardly admitted of melioration. It contained within itself the

very seeds of dissolution; and almost any sudden change of external circumstances, of new disaster, would be apt to produce consequences the most fatal. Feeble as their bond

of union was, it was still further weakened by the craft, vices and corruptions imported from every part of the eastern continent. Such a flood of evils, social, natural and moral, the original natives were not able to withstand. This flood of evils has destroyed those whom it first overtook, and now threatens the ultimate extinction of the whole race.

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CHAPTER XXII.

The character of Indians variously represented. The Hurons. The natives corrupted. Their appearance. Complexion. Seat of color. Variety on the eastern contiUniformity on the western. Influence of climate. The Indian temper not equable. Merry. Grave. Taciturn. Irritable. Idle. Women laborious. Dirty. Finery of men. Dress. Varnish. Modern dress. Ornaments. Military dress. Love of distinction natural and useful.

THE character of the Indians has been very differently represented. Some have painted them as the most wild and abhorrent monsters in nature, and almost unworthy of being admitted to the rank of human beings. Such are inclined to consider the minds of the whole race as being incapable of much culture, their hearts insensible of the finer emotions, and their state not susceptible of any great melioration.

Others have formed opinions highly honorary to them. Columbus himself, who knew them in a state uncorrupted by intercourse with Europeans, speaks of them as an amiable race of men, and of their customs as being very becoming. Charlevoix, father of Henepin and other French writers, M. Buffon excepted, give us the most favorable accounts of them. Voltaire draws a captivating picture of Indian manners, of which the Hurons, on the eastern side of the great lake of the same name, are the originals. There is a great diversity of character among this people. No one can read the history of the ancient Peruvians, without having his mind struck with a thonsand amiable traits. Nor shall we often find among any people manners more simple, or affections more friendly. But the whole race does not now appear as it once did. Intercourse with the white people, many of whom were monsters in human shape, has served to corrupt them, and has increased every malignant passion. Of late, though Americans and Europeans have courted their alliance in war, yet they have been found faithless in engagement, greedy of spoil, insatiable in revenge, and dangerous in a reverse of for