214 OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING 



however, did not fecure the Mexicans from the errors and 

 the miferies cf fuperftition. On the contrary, they were 

 among the number of the moft fuperftitious nations of 

 mankind, and their innumerable human facrifices con- 

 ftitute one of the blacked features in the charadler of our 

 fpecies. 1 have been led, in the courfe of the prefent and 

 of preceding inquiries, to fuppole, that the ancient Ame- 

 rican remains are the work of a people nearly in the fame 

 ftate of fociety as the Mexicans; of a people who, like 

 the Mexicans, were extremely fuperftitious. If this con- 

 jccfture be well founded, we ought not to regret that the 

 prefent races of Indians have declined from the fuperior 

 polifh of their fore-fathers. We have reafon to rejoice, 

 that they have thus declined ; fmce, if they have loft 

 fome of the arts by which they were diftinguifhed, they 

 have alfo loft fome of the worft parts of their religion. 

 In the fulnefs of their gratitude to the Great-Spirit, they 

 at prefent content themfelves with offering up the fruits, 

 the grains, and the flowers of their country ; or if, for re- 

 hgious purpofes, they deem it neceflary to deprive exift- 

 ences of life, they do not make facrifices of human 

 beings, but offer up fome of the wild or domefticated 

 animals around them. The annual offering of fome of 

 our fouthern tribes is the earlieft ripened maize of their 

 country : but the anceflors of thefe very tribes are 

 known to have made, at the fame period, offerings of 

 their children. 



Avarice, or the defires for gain, fometimes ftimulates 

 men to exertions, which prove beneficial to literature, or 

 to the fciences. It will be well if this deteftable paffion 

 can, at any time, be turned to the better interefts of men. 

 In this country, as yet, the enej-gies of fcience are not 

 great. The hiftory of the aboriginal Americans, in par- 

 ticular, has been negleded ; confiderable tribes have 

 mouldered away, and of their phyfical and moral features, 



of 



