148 THE WILDERNESS AKD ITS TENANTS. [1760-1763. 



So thin and scattered was the native population, 

 that, even in those parts which were thought well 

 peopled, one might sometimes journey for days 

 together through the twilight forest, and meet no 

 human form. Broad tracts were left in solitude. 

 All Kentucky was a vacant waste, a mere skirmish- 

 ing ground for the hostile war-parties of the north 

 and south. A great part of Upper Canada, of 

 Michigan, and of Illinois, besides other portions 

 of the west, were tenanted by wild beasts alone. 

 To form a close estimate of the numbers of the 

 erratic bands who roamed this wilderness would 

 be impossible ; but it may be affirmed that, be- 

 tween the Mississippi on the west and the ocean 

 on the east, between the Ohio on the south and 

 Lake Superior on the north, the whole Indian 

 population, at the close of the French war, did 

 not greatly exceed ten thousand lighting men. 

 Of these, following the statement of Sir William 

 Johnson, in 1763, the Iroquois had nineteen hun- 

 dred and fifty, the Delawares about six hundred, 

 the Shawanoes about three hundred, the Wyandots 

 about four hundred and fifty, and the Miami tribes, 

 with their neighbors the Kickapoos, eight hun- 

 dred ; while the Ottawas, the Ojibwas, and other 

 wandering tribes of the north, defy all eff'orts at 

 enumeration.^ 



A close survey of the condition of the tribes at 

 this period will detect some signs of improvement, 



1 The estimates given by Croghan, Bouquet, and Hutchins, do not 

 quite accord with that of Johnson. But the discrepancy is no greater 

 than might have been expected from the difficulties of the case. 



