HISTORY OF VERMONT. 239 



contain more than half so many members, as 

 those of the white people. The Indian popula- 

 tion then will be highly estimated, if we com- 

 pute it to be one half of that of the white inhabi- 

 itants ; and instead of thirty, admit sixty years 

 as the period of doubling. Assuming the pop- 

 ulation to have proceeded from one male and 

 female, this would require thirteen centuries and 

 an half to have spread over the whole continent, 

 and produced one inhabitant to every square 

 mile. The period of population could not have 

 been less than this. But probably this period 

 was completed long before Columbus came in- 

 to America. The Indians in several places, 

 had gone out of the hunter's state. On the sea 

 coasts they w^re advancing into som.ething like 

 monarchy. In Mexico and Peru they were be- 

 come extremelv numerous, and had established 

 extensive and powerful empires ; the duration 

 of which, could be traced back four or five hun- 

 dred years. From their extent and population 

 then, we deduce with some degree of probabili- 

 tv, that the Indians must have been settled in 

 America eighteen centuries when Columbus 

 first discovered the continent. This will carry 

 us back three centuries before the christian era. 

 The number and variety oi their la?2guages 

 implies and requires a much longer duration, 

 and an higher antiquity. The Indians of A- 

 merica had not only spread over the continent, 

 but they had every where formed themselves 

 into a number of small tribes. If we may judge 

 of the number of these tribes from what took; 

 place in New England, and Virginia, they must 

 have amounted to thousands. Several of thesii 



