Chap. IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 269 



know fo little of its aiitlent hiflory, that it is impofTible we can de- 

 termine whether it was not in former times ftill more populous. 



This may fuffice as to the ftate of population of the Eaftern coun- 

 tries. From the Eaft 1 go to the Wefl, and to that New World, as 

 it may be called, that has been difcovered on the other fide of the 

 Atlantic Ocean. As this difcovery was no longer ago than about 

 300 hundred years, it might be thought that this New World fliould 

 have efcaped the defolarion, which, I have fhown, has been fo gene- 

 ral in the Old World; or, at leaft, that it fhould not have been depo- 

 pulated by the Spaniards who difcovered it, or by the Europceans who 

 have fettled there. But fo far from that, I have fhown in the prece- 

 ding part of this volume, that, in South America and the Weft In- 

 dia iflands, there has been m^ide, by the Spaniards, what may be 

 called, in the language of our Scripture, the abomination of defolatim^ 



Nor were the Spaniards the only depopulators of America ; but 

 we of this ifland have contributed greatly to that defolation : For 

 the Britifh colonies, that fettled in North America, have exterminat- 

 ed the natives by war and maffacre, and ftill more by our vices and 

 difeafes, all along the coaft of that country from Hudfon's Bay to Flo- 

 rida, and up to the Apulachian Mount .ins, to the extent of 300 miles 

 from the fea; and in all that vaft tradl of country there are no vef- 

 tiges of the antient inhabitants to be fcen except their burial places. 



CHAP. 



