its virgin mould; and in several places the inge-nuity of the planter is still employed in diminishing its superfluous fertility, to bring it down to a -state fit for profitable culture.

We are now to inquire how America was peopled. The theories and speculations of ingenious men with respect to this subject would fill many volumes. Some have imagined that the people of America were not the offspring of the same common parent with the rest of mankind: others contend that they are descended from some remnant of the antediluvian inhabitants of the earth who survived the deluge, and accordingly suppose the -uncivilized tribes to be the most ancient race of people on the earth. There is hardly any nation from the north to the south pole to which some antiquary, in the extravagance of conjecture, has not ascribed the honour of peopling of America. Without entering at large upon this elaborate disquisition, we may observe that from the contiguity, it is possible that America may have received its first inhabitants from our continent, either by the north-west of Europe or the north-east of Asia. There seems, however, good reason for supposing that the progenitors of all the American nations, from Cape Horn to the southern confines of Labrador, migrated from the latter rather than from the former. The Esquimaux are the only people in America who, in their aspect or character, bear any resemblance to the northern Europeans. They are manifestly a race of men distinct from all the other nations of the American continent, in language, disposition, and in habits of life. Their original then may warrantably be traced up to the north of Europe. But among the other inhabitants of America there is such a striking similitude in

the form of their bodies, and the qualities of their minds, as to force us to pronounce them to be descended from one source. There may be a variety in the shades, but we can every where trace the same original colour. Each tribe has something peculiar which distinguishes it, but in all of them we discern certain features common to the whole race; they have some resemblance to the rude tribes scattered over the north-east of Asia, but scarcely any to the nations settled in the northern extremities of Europe: we therefore refer them to Asiatic progenitors having settled in those parts of America where the Russians have discovered the proximity of the two continents, and spread gradually over its various regions. This account of the progress of population in America coincides with the tradition of the Mexicans concerning their own origin. According to them their ancestors came from a remote country, situated to the north-west of Mexico. They point out the various stations as they advanced from this into the inferior provinces; and it is precisely the same route which they must have held, if they had been emigrants from Asia. The Mexicans, in describing the appearance of their progenitors, their manners, and habits of life at that period, exactly delineate those rude Tartars from whom probably they sprung.

The condition and character of the American nations, at the time when they became known to the Europeans, deserve more attentive consideration than the inquiry concerning their original. The latter is merely an object of curiosity, the former is one of the most important as well as instructive researches that can occupy the philosopher or historian. To complete the history of the human mind, we must contemplate man in all those vari

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ous situations in which he has been placed. must follow him in his progress through the different stages of society, and observe how the faculties of the understanding unfold; we must attend to the efforts of his active powers, watch the various emotions of desire and affection, as they rise in the breast, and mark whither they tend and with what they are exerted.

. In America, man appears under the rudest form in which we can conceive him to subsist. There were only two nations in this vast continent that had made any considerable progress in acquiring the ideas and adopting the institutions which be long to polished societies. Their government and manners will fall naturally under our review in relating the discovery and conquest of Mexico and Peru. For the present our attention must be turned to the small independent tribes which occupied every other part of America, to whom may be applied the denomination of Savage. To conduct this inquiry with greater accuracy, it should be rendered as simple as possible; for this purpose it will be proper to consider,

I. The bodily constitution of the Americans. The human body is less affected by climate than that of any other animal. Man is the only living creature whose frame is at once so hardy, and so flexible, that he can spread over the whole earth, become the inhabitant of every region, and thrive and multiply under every climate. Subject, however, to the general law of nature, the human body is not entirely exempt from the operation of climate, and when exposed to the extremes of cold and heat, its size or vigour diminishes. The complexion of the Americans is of a reddish brown, nearly resembling the colour of copper; the hair

of their heads is long, black, coarse, and without curl. They have no beard, and every part of their body is smooth. Their persons are of a full size, extremely straight, and well proportioned. In the islands, the constitution of the natives was extremely feeble and languid. On the continent the human frame acquired greater firmness; still the Americans were more remarkable for agility than strength. They resembled beasts of prey rather than animals formed for labour. They were not only averse from toil, but incapable of it; and when compelled to work, they sunk under tasks which the people of the other continent would have performed with ease. The beardless countenance and smooth skin of the American seem

to indicate a defect of vigour. This peculiarity

cannot be attributed to their mode of subsistence. For tho' the food of many Americans be extremely insipid, as they are altogether unacquainted with the use of salt, rude tribes in other parts of the earth have subsisted on aliments equally simple, without any apparent diminution in their vigour.

As the external form of the Americans leads us to suspect that there is some natural debility in their frame, the smallness of their appetite for food has been mentioned as a confirmation of this suspicion. The quantity of food which men consume varies according to the temperature of the climate in which they live, the degree of activity which they exert, and the natural vigour of their constitutions. Under the enervating heat of the torrid zone, and where men pass their days in indolence, they require less nourishment than the active inhabitants of temperate or cold countries. But neither the warmth of the climate, nor their extreme laziness, will account for the uncoinmon defect of

appetite among the Americans. The Spaniards were astonished at this; while on the other hand the appetite of the Spaniards appeared to the Americans insatiably voracious, and they affirmed that one Spaniard devoured more in a day than ten Americans.

A proof of some feebleness in their frame still more striking is the insensibility of the Americans to the charms of beauty, and the power of love. The Americans are, in an amazing degree, strangers to the force of the first instinct of nature. In every part of the new world the natives treat their women with coldness and indifference. They are neither the objects of that tender attachment which takes place in civilized society, nor of that ardent desire conspicuous among rude nations.

This difference of character must not be imputed to physical causes alone, to the exclusion of the influence which political and moral causes have upon the constitution. Wherever the state of society is such as to create many wants and desires which cannot be satisfied without regular exertions of industry, the body, accustomed to labour, becomes robust and patient of fatigue. The same reasoning will apply to what has been observed concerning their slender demand for food; for where the people are obliged to exert any unusual effort of activity in order to procure subsistence, their appetite is not inferior to that of other men. The operation of political and moral causes is still more conspicuous in modifying the degree of attachment between the sexes. In a state of high civilization this passion, inflamed by restraint, refined by delicacy, and cherished by fashion, occupies and engrosses the heart. It is no longer a simple instinct of nature; sentiment heightens the