Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1853).djvu/116

100 different stocks, each of which multiplying in a long course of time, had separated into so many little societies. This practice results from the circumstance of their having never submitted themselves to any laws, any coercive power, any shadow of government. Their only controls are their manners, and that moral sense of right and wrong which, like the sense of tasting and feeling, in every man makes a part of his nature. An offence against these is punished by contempt, by exclusion from society, or, where the case is serious, as that of murder, by the individuals whom it concerns. Imperfect as this species of coercion may seem, crimes are very rare among them: insomuch that were it made a question, whether no law, as among the savage Americans, or too much law, as among the civilized Europeans, submits man to the greatest evil, one who has seen both conditions of existence would pronounce it to be the last, and that the sheep are happier of themselves than under care of the wolves. It will be said that great societies cannot exist without government: the savages, therefore, break them into small ones.

The territories of the Powhatan confederacy south of the Patowmac, comprehended about 8,000 square miles, 30 tribes, and 2,400 warriors. Capt. Smith tells us, that within 60 miles of Jamestown were 5,000 people, of whom 1,500 were warriors. From this we find the proportion of their warriors to their whole inhabitants, was as 3 to 10. The Powhatan confederacy, then, would consist of about 8,000 inhabitants, which was one for every square mile: being about the twentieth part of our present population in the same territory, and the hundredth of that of the British Islands.

Besides these were the Nottoways, living on Nottoway River, the Meherrins and Tuteloes on Meherrin River, who were connected with the Indians of Carolina, probably with the Chowanocs.