U7 



CHAP. VI. 



Of the Condition of Mankind under the Barbarian Governments 



in America. 



Its treating of the Asiatic and European barbarian govern- 

 ments I omitted those of America, as that part of the globe 

 was chiefly inhabited by savages. Before, however, I enter 

 on the investigation of happiness in more civiHzed life, it 

 will be necessary to consider in what degree it existed in the 

 few tribes that coalesced into social communities in America. 



Of the Government of the Natches and of Bagota. 



Doctor Robertson informs us from numerous Spanish au- 

 thorities,* that among the Natches, a nation on the borders 

 of the Mississippi, not only an hereditary nobility was esta- 

 blished, but the most unlimited despotism in the person of a 

 single chief. The body of the people was considered as vile 

 and formed for subjection to the will of the chief. All sub- 



V 2 mitted 



f 2 Roberts. 98. 



