SOME REMAINS of ANTIQUITY. 189 



firft became acquainted with them. On this fubje£t, 

 there is much uniformity in thefe traditions. The In- 

 dians fpeak of the great power of their chiefs in thofe 

 days of higher improvement, and affure us that wars* 

 and peftilential difeafes-f- were the great caufes of their 



* Mr. James Adair, fpeaking of the Indians, fays, " Through the 

 whole continent, and in the remoteft woods, are traces of their ancient 

 warlil<:e difpofition." The Hi/hry of the American Indians, p 377. Lon- 

 don : 1775. The numerous fortification;, that have been already difcover- 

 ed, feem ftrongly to favour the idea, that the ancient nations of America 

 were very warlike. From contemplating thefe fortifications, one is almoll 

 induced to fay, what Florus has faid of the Sarmatse, " that they knew not 

 what peace was." " Tanta barbaries eft," fays the Roman hiftorian, " ut 

 pacem non intelligant." L. Annaei Fiori Epitome Rerum Romanarum." 

 Lib. iv. cap. xii. 



f I am inclined to think that fevers, probably contagious fevers, had 

 contributed very greatly to the depopulation of the American nations, 

 before the arrival of the Europeans among them. I could adduce many 

 fa<5ls, from the early writers, which would give fupport to this fuppofition : 

 but, at prefent, this is not necelfary. The fubjeifi will be attended to in 

 my memoir concerning the difeafes and remedies of our Indians. In the 

 meanwhile, I fhall mention only one of the many writers, whom I have 

 examined on this fubjefl. 



Daniel Gookin, in his Hijlorlcal CoUe8ions ofthi Indians in New-England, 

 fpeaking of the Pawkunnawkutts, who were once a populous nation in New- 

 England, fays, " This nation, a very great number of tiiem, were fwept 

 away by an epidemical and unwonted ficknefs, An. 161 2 and 1613, about 

 feven or eight years before the Englilh firft arrived in thofe parts to fettle 

 the colony of New Plymouth. Thereby divine providence made way for 

 the quiet and peaceable fettlement of the Englilh in tliofe nations. What 

 this difeafe was, tliat fo generally and mortally fwept away, not only thefe 

 but other Indians, their neighbours, I cannot well learn. Doubtlefs it was 

 fome peftilential difeafe. I have difcourfed with fome old Indians, that 

 were then youths ; who fay, that the bodies all over were exceeding yellow, 

 defcribing it by a yellow garment they Ihowed me, both before they died, 

 and afterward." The fame writer, fpeaking of the Mallachufetts, fiys, 

 " In An. 161 2 and 161 3, thefe people were alfo forely fmitten by the hand 

 of Go J with the fame difeafe, before mentioned in the Lift feition : which 

 deflroyed the moft of them, and made room for the Englilh people of 

 MafTachufetts colony, which people this country, and the next called 

 Pawtuckett. There are not of this people left at this day above three hun- 

 dred men, befides women and children." See the valuable Collstiions oftht 

 Mjjfachufetts HiJiori:al Society, for the year 1792- Vol. I. p. 148. Gookin'j 

 " Epiftle Dedicatory" is dated December ytli, 1674. 



B b fpUtting 



