EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND. 223 



also more than usually elegant in their persons, and of every 

 variety of complexion between that of their compatriots and a 

 pure white. Up to the time of Mr. Catlin's visit, these people 

 had been able to defend themselves and their possessions 

 against the roving bands which surrounded them on all sides ; 

 but, soon after, they were attacked by small-pox, which cut 

 them all off except a small party, whom their enemies rushed 

 in upon and destroyed to a man. What is this but a repetition 

 on a small scale, of phenomena with w r hich ancient history 

 familiarizes us a nation rising in arts and elegancies amidst 

 barbarous neighbours, but at length overpowered by the rude 

 majority, leaving only a Tadmor or a Luxor as a monument 

 of itself to beautify the waste ? What can we suppose the 

 nation which built Palenque and Copan to have been but only 

 a kind of Mandan tribe, which chanced to have made its way 

 further along the path of civilization and the arts, before the 

 barbarians broke in upon it ? The flame essayed to rise in many 

 parts of the earth ; but there were strong agencies working 

 against it, and down it accordingly went, times without num- 

 ber ; yet there was always a vitality in it, nevertheless, and a 

 tendency to progress, and at length it seems to have attained 

 a strength against which the powers of barbarism can never 

 more prevail. The state of our knowledge of uncivilized 

 nations is very apt to make us fall into error on this subject. 

 They are generally supposed to be all at one point in barbarism, 

 which is far from being the case, for in the midst of every great 

 region of uncivilized men, such as North America, there are 

 nations partially refined. The Jolofs, Mandingoes, and Kafirs, 

 are African examples, where a natural and independent origin 

 for the improvement which exists, is as unavoidably to be pre- 

 sumed as in the case of the Man dan s^ 90 ) 



The most conclusive argument against the original civiliza- 

 tion of mankind is to be found in the fact that we do not now 

 see civilization existing anywhere except in certain conditions 

 altogether different from any we can suppose to have existed 

 at the commencement of our race. To have civilization, it is 

 necessary that a people should be numerous and closely placed ; 

 that they should be fixed in their habitations, and safe from 



