Aboriginal Race of America. 207 



here the same primitive vessels and the same timid naviga- 

 tors. It is indeed questionable whether they ever designedly- 

 lost sight of land, nor does it appear that they made the sea 

 subservient to their conquests. These were uniformly pros- 

 ecuted by land, excepting perhaps those of the Incas, in their 

 efforts to subdue the fierce islanders of Titicaca ; but even 

 the partial pen of Garcilaso limits all these inventions to log 

 canoes and rafts of reeds ; nor does it appear that the inge- 

 nuity of these people, so abundantly displayed on many other 

 occasions, had ever added an improvement to the primeval 

 germ of navigation. 



Nor are those tribes which depend almost wholly on fish 

 for their daily subsistence, much better provided than the 

 others. The Chenouks and other nations on the western 

 coast of America, have boats hewn with comparative in- 

 genuity from a single plank, and compared to a butcher's tray ; 

 but in these frail vessels they keep cautiously within sight of 

 land, and never venture on the Avater unless the weather is 

 favourable to their enterprise. It is to be observed, however, 

 that when the Indians are compelled to carry their boats 

 across portages from river to river, they construct them of 

 birch bark, and with a degree of ingenuity and adaptation 

 much above their usual resources. Thus boats that would 

 carr}?- nine men do not weigh over sixty pounds, and are there- 

 fore conveyed with ease to considerable distances. This is 

 almost the only deviation from the log canoe, and is equally 

 characteristic ; for it is common among the interior Indians of 

 both North and South America, and was noticed by De Solis 

 in the Mexican provinces. 



Inferior in these respects to the other tribes are the Fue- 

 gians ; a people whom perpetual exposure and privation, and 

 the influence of an inhospitable climate have reduced to a 

 feeble intelligence, — the moral childhood of their race. Not 

 even the stimulus of necessity has been able to excite that 

 ingenuity which would so amply provide for all their wants ; 

 and they starve amid the abundant stores of the ocean because 

 they possess no adequate means for obtaining them. The 

 Falkland and Malouine islands, in but fifty degrees of South 



