Chap. VII.] THE RACES OF MAN. 229 



ern extremity of America the Fuegians survive without 

 the protection of clothes, or of any building worthy to be 

 called a hovel. In South Africa the aborigines wander 

 over the most arid plains, where dangerous beasts abound. 

 Man can withstand the deadly influence of the Terai at 

 the foot of the Himalaya, and the pestilential shores of 

 tropical Africa. 



Extinction follows chiefly from the competition of tribe 

 with tribe, and race with race. Various checks are always 

 in action, as specified in a former chapter, which serve to 

 keep down the numbers of each savage tribe — such as 

 periodical famines, the wandering of the parents and the 

 consequent deaths of infants, prolonged suckling, the steal- 

 ing of women, wars, accidents, sickness, licentiousness, es- 

 pecially infanticide, and, perhaps, lessened fertility from 

 ess nutritious food, and many hardships. If from any 

 cause any one of these checks is lessened, even in a slight 

 degree, the tribe thus favored will tend to increase ; and 

 when one of two adjoining tribes becomes more numerous 

 and powerful than the other, the contest is soon settled 

 by war, slaughter, cannibalism, slavery, and absorption. 

 Even when a weaker tribe is not thus abruptly swept 

 away, if it once begins to decrease, it generally goes on 

 decreasing until it is extinct. 31 



When civilized nations come into contact with barba- 

 rians the struggle is short, except where a deadly climate 

 gives its aid to the native race. Of the causes which lead 

 to the victory of civilized nations, some are plain and some 

 very obscure. We can see that the cultivation of the land 

 will be fatal in many ways to savages, for they cannot, or 

 will not, change their habits. New diseases and vices are 

 highly destructive ; and it appears that in every nation a 

 new disease causes much death, until those who are most 

 susceptible to its destructive influence are gradually weed- 



31 Gerland (ibid. s. 12) gives facts in support of this statement. 



