54 NATIVES OF GREENLAND. 



ciple, the difference of manners already between the United 

 States' American and his British predecessors, has become 

 very strongly marked ; and little doubt can be entertained 

 but that in the progress of several centuries the North 

 American colonist will be as remote in habits and general 

 character from the European as both at present stand in 

 geographical situation. 



The vast population of the northern regions of the earth, 

 has been long a matter of surprise. The destruction of the 

 eastern empires, China, for instance, and that of India, 

 from the irruption of the Tartar hordes, are memorable 

 proofs of the population of the North having been in early 

 times amazingly great. The ruin of the Roman empire 

 followed from the same cause ; and, in a later period, the 

 world has witnessed the annihilation of one of the most 

 warlike armies that ever was known, by the descendants of 

 those very Tartars. 



There may be assumed a line embracing the globe to be 

 considered as an equator of civiUzation, towards which, as 

 man approximates, his faculties are observed to be more 

 perfectly developed ; whilst on the other hand, receding 

 from this equator, some of the higher and more beautiful 

 portions of human character die away. Ancient Greece 

 would appear to be traversed by this line. Here the finest 

 specimens of man in full possession of his faculties, in re- 

 finement of manners, .language, and the arts, have existed; 



