I.

origin of society, drawn from times and manners CHAP. which will not countenance his analogy, he ascends to the cradle of man. The man of the old world is a coin with the date and impression worn out by time and use: The North American is fresh from the mint, or if it be thought a better comparison, he is a coin which has been locked up from circulation, the impression on which is deep and legible.

A CORRECT knowledge of this people would throw light on the history of man. An accurate investigation of this continent would advance the boundaries of human knowledge. This is the domain of nature: Here she sports wild amid her innumerable productions. Avarice had not embowelled her in quest of gold; the axe hath not defiled her forests: Kings have not ravaged her surface. She is as she came from the hands of the creator, majestic and lovely.

ALL the writers who have treated of the new world, have specially considered this subject; and although it may appear strange that in an inquiry so plain and accessible to fair examination, any variance should exist: No two of them agree in the greater number of particulars; and not one has given a correct and natural picture of the American Indian.

Ir may appear arrogance to pronounce sentence thus boldly on the respectable historians of the new world; more especially, as the censure seems to imply a greater correctness or candor in myself. Such idle vanity will not be imputed to me; I lay claim only to equal impartiality and industry with my predecessors. The opportunities of acquiring information on this head may have been more favourable to me. The character of this people is better understood since they have enjoyed an uninterrupted and friendly

CHAP.

I.

Character of Indian better

when Dr.

wrote.

intercourse with the United States. Their chiefs led by curiosity or business frequently visit our cities, and many of our citizens have travelled and lived amongst them.

IT has become of late the policy of our government to keep agents in their country, and some of the citizens employed in this service, with a zeal and prudence highly deserving praise, known than have laboured to acquire a correct knowledge of Robertson their character and language. Without this information indeed they had found it impossible to gain or preserve that ascendance in their national councils, which enables them to allay the fierce spirits of this people. That reserve which is thought peculiar to the American Indian is every day slowly giving place to the social feelings, to which this intercourse has given birth; and subjects concerning which superstition or custom had formerly sealed their lips, are now discussed without scruple or apprehension. The advantages arising from this state of things, I owe to time; it would be absurd for chance or fortune to lay claim to the rewards of merit.

Dr. Robert

an character and

maners examined.

To follow the several writers who have handled this subject, would be at once uninteresting and son's analy- impracticable. Mr. Robertson, in his valuable sis of Indi- work, the history of America, has given a rapid but at the same time perspicuous analysis of the arguments of his predecessors. His inquiry certainly contains much ingenious deduction, with considerable learning and research; and I profess myself indebted to him for the knowledge of several interesting particulars, which derive new force from his manner of relating them. But he has been compelled to take most of his information on trust, and he rests with too much confidence on the imposing authority of Raynal and Buffon, and the suspicious testimony of the

I.

Spanish writers. The former gentlemen, to whom CHAP. literature is indebted for so many noble sentiments; for so much profound and elegant informa. tion, framed a theory concerning the moral and phy sical powers of the Indian, and afterwards went in quest of facts to support it. With every disposition to arrive at the truth, they were contiually led astray by their desire to maintain their hypothesis. The diviner is insensibly interested in the fulfilment of his prediction. For the rest, Mr. Robertson is almost wholly dependent on the Spanish historians, and these almost with the exception of the intelligent Ulloa and the virtuous and intrepid Le Casa, are incompetent by reason of their prejudices to examine the merits of the question. The scope of their inquiry is in general too narrow to allow a correct and general decision: they are either the apologists of Spanish cruelties, or they drew their portraits from a people pining in bondage, and whose energies were broken by despair. It will not be thought surprising that Dr. Robertson was compelled to sanction an hypothesis supported by the weight of such powerful authority.

It seems not improper to premise in this place, that all objections which attach equally to every people in the savage state as well as to the Indian, are totally inadmissible. They set out to prove a peculiar debility in the physical structure and in the moral faculties of the Indian, and evidence only of this peculiarity can be properly received.

THE first subject of Mr. Robertson's inquiry, is the bodily structure and external appearance of Bodily the Indian; "they were not only averse to la- structuré bour," says he, "but incapable of it; and when and external appear. roused by force from their native indolence and ance of the compelled to work, they sunk under tasks which Indian. the people of the other continent could have per

1.

CHAP. formed with ease." Here he manifestly alludes to the indolent natives of Cuba and Hispaniola, and the Peruvians, who, before the arrival of the Spaniards, were unacquainted with every species of labour, and who by the Repartmientos divided amongst brutal task masters, died by thousands of broken hearts.

nance.

THE admirable symmetry of the Indian form is prima face evidence of an organization without defect; and the inability to endure fatigue, if it exist any where to the extent alluded to, is only to be ascribed to an habitual and enervating indolence: Indeed, Mr. Robertson concedes this point where he says, "whenever the Americans have been gradually accustomed to hard labour, their constitutions become robust, and they have been found capable of performing such tasks as seemed not only to exceed the powers of such a frame as has been deemed peculiar to their country, but to equal any effort of the nations of Africa or Europe."

"THE beardless countenance and smooth skin His beard of the American," continues Mr. Robertson, less counte- "seem to indicate a defect of vigour occasioned by some vice in his frame." Whether beard is essential to manhood, is, I suspect, mere matter of conjecture, and until this fact shall be placed beyond doubts by experiment, it is conceived unnecessary to argue this charge. Fortunately it has an easier refutation; the fact is not so; "at the age of puberty the crinose efflorescence which is deemed essential to manhood discovers itself on the body of the Indian as well as other men:* But with them it is disgraceful to be hairy on the body; they say it likens them to

* Carver.

4

I.

hogs: They therefore pluck the hair as fast as it CHAP. appears. But the traders, who marry their women, and prevail on them to discontinue this practice, say that nature is the same with them as with the whites.* "They pull their beards up," says Mr. Beverley, "by the roots with muscle shells, and both men and women do the same by the other parts of their body for cleanliness sake."

THE substance of Mr. Jefferson's information is attested by Charlevoix and several other writers. As the fact was considered on all sides interesting, I have been at some pains of ascertaining how it stands without regard to those antipathies and partialities, which prevent a fair decision. The result of my observations, derived from citizens who have lived among the Indians, and from several other sources equally respectable, establish beyond all question the fact in favour of this opinion.

THE Smallness of their appetite and their insen. Their insibility to the charms of beauty are next urged sensibility in proof of some feebleness in the frame of the to the American Indian: But those points are likewise

charins of

*Notes on Virginia, p. 140.

† Canada, therefore, is not a desert from natural defects, but the track of life which its inhabitants pursue. Though they are as fit for procreation as our northern people, all their strength is employed for their own preservation. Hunger does not allow them to attend to the softer passions. If the people of the south sacrifice every thing to this desire, it is because the first is easily satisfied. In a country where nature is very prolific, and man consumes but little, the overplus of his strength is turned wholly to population, which is likewise assisted by the warmth of the climate.

Raynal's History of America, page 27.

Vide Rob, Am. vol. 1, p. 95 and 96.