HISTORY OF VERMONT. 21S 



attempted to improve any information \vhich he 

 had, and knew of no method to preserve it but 

 tradition, he made small advances in this kind 

 of knowledge ; and it was rather a matter of 

 secrecy, than of investigation. Nor was there 

 any thing in his situation, or employment, a- 

 dapted to call forth the latent powers of his 

 mind, and to produce the spirit of inquiry and 

 improvement. 



Very Unfavourable to Population^ 

 A disadvantage still more unfavourable attended 

 the savage state, it tended much to retard popu- 

 lation. From the earliest histories of Virginia, 

 it has been computed that the number of In- 

 dians in that part of the continent, did not a- 

 mount to more than one for every square mile.* 

 I do not find any account, which will lead us to 

 estimate the number of Indians in New En^:- 

 land, at a higher ratio than this. In those parts 

 of the United States where the farms are well 

 managed, a farm of one hundred acres will well sup- 

 port a family of ten persons. Tliis amounts to 

 sixty four persons, on one square mile. The 

 Indian population then, compared to what has 

 already taken place in those parts of the United 

 States, which are Vv^eil settled and cultivated^ 

 was in no higher a proportion than one to sixty 

 four. A difference so unfavourable to the pro- 

 duction of life, denotes some essential defecj: in 

 the savage state. 



Population depends upon a variety of cir- 

 cumstanccs, all of which are never found to 

 «oncur, in favour of apy people, tfi the state 



• JeScriijjj'i NfUssn Virjinls, p. isf , 



