Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/95

Rh enjoyment of their natural equality. That firſt teaches us to ſubdue the ſelfiſh paſſions, and to reſpect thoſe rights in others which we value in ourſelves. Were we in equal barbariſm, our females would be equal drudges. The man with them is leſs ſtrong than with us, but their women ſtronger than ours: and both from the ſame obvious reaſon; becauſe our man and their woman is habituated to labor, and formed by it. With both races the ſex which is indulged with eaſe is leaſt athletic. An Indian man is ſmall in the hand and wriſt, for the ſame reaſon for which a ſailor is large and ſtrong in the arms and ſhoulders, and a porter in the legs and thighs.—They raiſe fewer children than we do. The cauſes of this are to be found, not in a difference of nature, but of circumſtance. The women very frequently attending the men in their parties of war and of hunting, child-bearing becomes extremely inconvenient to them. It is ſaid, therefore, that they have learned the practice of procuring abortion by the uſe of ſome vegetable; and that it even extends to prevent conception for a conſiderable time after. During theſe parties they are expoſed to numerous hazards, to exceſſive exertions, to the greateſt extremities of hunger. Even at their homes the nation depends for food, through a certain part of every year, on the gleanings of the foreſt: that is, they experience a famine once in every year. With all animals, if the females be badly fed, or not fed at all, her young periſh: and if both male and female be reduced to like want, generation becomes leſs active, leſs productive. To the obſtacles then of want and hazard, which nature has oppoſed to the multiplication of wild animals, for the purpoſe of