a dreadful epidemic like the small-pox, which fweeps off great numbers".

In the year 1789 they were vifited by this epidemic which raged among them with all the appearance and virulence of the fmall-pox. The defolation that it occafioned was almost incredible. Not a living perfon was to be found in the bays and harbours that were before the moft frequented. Not a veftige of a human foot was to be traced on the fands. They had left the dead to bury the dead. The excavations in the rocks were filled with putrid bodies, and in many places the paths were covered with fkeletons".

Mr. Collins was informed, that the tribe of Co-le-be, the native mentioned before, had been reduced by the effects of this dreadful diforder to three perfons, who found themselves obliged to unite with fome other tribe to prevent their utter extinction.

Under fuch powerful caufes of depopulation, we should naturally be inclined to suppose that the animal and vegetable produce of the country

See generally, the Appendix to Collins's Account of the English Colony in New South Wales.

b Collins's N. S. Wales, Appendix, p. 597.

• Id. Appendix, p. 598.

would

would be increafing upon the thinly fcattered inhabitants, and, added to the fupply of fish from their fhores, would be more than fufficient for their confumption; yet it appears upon the whole, that the population is in general fo nearly on a level with the average fupply of food, that every little deficiency from unfavourable weather, or other caufes, occafions diftrefs. ticular times, when the inhabitants feemed to be in great want, are mentioned as not uncommon, and at these periods, fome of the natives were found reduced to fkeletons, and almost ftarved to death".

Par

Collins's N. S. Wales, c. iii. p. 34. and Appen. p. 551.

СНАР.

CHAP. IV.

Of the Checks to Population among the American Indians.

WE may next turn our view to the vast con

tinent of America, the greateft part of which was found to be inhabited by small independent tribes of favages fubfifting, nearly like the natives of New Holland, on the productions of unaffisted nature. The foil was covered by an almost universal foreft, and prefented few of those fruits and efculent vegetables which grow in fuch profufion in the islands of the South Sea. The produce of a moft rude and imperfect agriculture, known to fome of the tribes of hunters, was fo trifling as to be confidered only as a feeble aid to the fubfiftence acquired by the chace. The inhabitants of this new world, therefore, might be confidered as living principally by hunting and fishing; and the narrow limits to this mode of fubfiftence are obvious.

• Robertson's Hiftory of America, vol. ii. b. iv. p. 127. et feq. octavo edit. 1780.

The

The fupplies derived from fishing could extend only to those who were within a certain distance of the lakes, the rivers, or the fea-fhore; and the ignorance and indolence of the improvident favage would frequently prevent him from extending the benefits of these fupplies much beyond the time when they were actually obtained. The great extent of territory required for the support of the hunter has been repeatedly stated and acknowledged'. The number of wild animals within his reach, combined with the facility with which they may be either killed or enfnared, muft neceffarily limit the number of his fociety. The tribes of hunters, like beafts of prey, whom they refemble in their mode of fubfiftence, will confequently be thinly fcattered over the furface of the earth. Like

beafts of prey, they muft either drive away or fly from every rival, and be engaged in perpetual contests with each other'.

Under fuch circumftances, that America fhould be very thinly peopled in proportion to its extent of territory, is merely an exemplification of the obvious truth, that population cannot increase without the food to fupport it.

Franklin's Mifcell. p. 2.

Robertson, b. iv. p. 129.

But

But the interesting part of the inquiry, that part to which I would with particularly to draw the attention of the reader, is, the mode by which the population is kept down to the level of this fcanty fupply. It cannot efcape obfervation, that an infufficient fupply of food to any people, does not fhew itself merely in the fhape of famine, but in other more permanent forms of distress, and in generating certain cuftoms, which operate fometimes with greater force in the fuppreffion of a rifing population, than in its fubfequent deftruction.

It was generally remarked, that the American women were far from being prolific. This unfruitfulnefs has been attributed by fome to a want of ardour in the men towards. their women, a feature of character, which has been confidered as peculiar to the American favage. It is not however peculiar to

a Robertfon, b. iv. p. 106. Burke's America, vol. i. p. 187. Charlevoix, Hift. de la Nouvelle France, tom. iii. p. 304. Lafitau, Mœurs des Sauvages, tom. i. p. 590. In the courfe of this chapter I often give the fame references as Robertso11; but never, without having examined and verified them myfelf. Where I have not had an opportunity of doing this, I refer to Robertson alone.