218 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



themselves in the "woods, and mountains ; where 

 many of them must perish for want of food, 

 and all of them must be in a suffering and dis- 

 tressed condition. In the whole catalogue of 

 human woes, it is not possible to conceive of 

 any state more distressing, than that of a preg- 

 nant woman, in a situation so horrid and awful. 

 Many of them lived, and brought forth the fruit 

 of ^lature, amidst this- complication of miseries. 

 But the preservation of the mother and child 

 approached nearer to the nature of a miracle, 

 than to what is esteemed the effect of the estab- 

 lished and regular laws of nature, 'in the civiliz- 

 ed state. While their wars had this fatal ten- 

 dency to prevent the increase^ they operated 

 with a force equally fatal, to destroy and sweep 

 off those that were the most vigorous and active. 

 Revenge, destruction, the utter externiination of 

 an enemy, was the object aimed at in an Indian 

 war : And while it was carried on, it operated 

 and raged with a fatal and a certain tendency, 

 to effect its design, aim, and end. 



Other causes might be found, in the cus- 

 toms, manners, and maxims of the savages, 

 which were also unfavourable to increase and 

 multiplication ; but it is not necessary to enu- 

 merate every particular, that would apply to this 

 subject. The circumstances which have been 

 mentioned, are sufficient to account for all that 

 has been uncommon, in the defect of Indian 

 population. That these circumstances, do in 

 fact contain the causes, which rendered the 

 population so small among the savages, is con- 

 firmed from this additional evidence. Wher- 

 ever the Indianb have been placed in a situation 



