Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/187

 SECT. V.] GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 151 and to form a number of small independent communities. It may easily be perceived that the perpetual state of warfare, in which neighbouring tribes are engaged, had its origin in the same cause which has produced the great diversity of Ameri- can languages or dialects. We may also understand, how the affections of the Indian became so exclusively concentrated in his own tribe, the intensity of that natural feeling, how it degenerated into deadly hatred of hostile nations, and the ex- cesses of more than savage ferocity in which he indulged under the influence of his unrestrained vindictive passions. It is worthy of remark that the population of those hunting nations does not appear to have ever reached the maximum of which it was susceptible. We have the proof of this, in the undiminished numbers of the buffalo in the prairies, and even of the deer in the north, and in the facility, with which the numerous servants of the European and American trading com- panies derive their means of subsistence in those districts from the natural resources of the country, from the chase or from the product of the lakes. The only species of animals, which have decreased, are those which supply furs and skins, for which commerce has created an extraordinary demand. The intestine wars of the Indians may have checked the increase of population ; but this is not the only cause, and we may find another in their inveterate indolence, united, as it is, with that habitual improvidence, occasionally attended with the greatest privations and even with famine. War and the chase are the only pursuits which the men do not think beneath their dignity. This is the uniform char- acteristic of all our Indian nations. When not thus engaged, they sink into a state of mental apathy and physical indolence, from which strong stimulants alone can rouse them ; and to this cause may be traced their excessive passion for gambling and for ardent spirits. Women are everywhere slaves and beasts of burden. Independent of that portion which naturally falls to their share, the cares of maternity and of the household, every other species of labor falls upon them. And this alone has prevented the beneficial effects which would otherwise have flowed from the introduction of agriculture. It has already been seen, that cultivation is exclusively con- fined to that portion of the country, clothed with forests, which, between the Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, extends from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and hardly beyond it. This terri-