J. H. Lefroy on the Indian Population of British America. 191 
marks by which they might measure the ete tide, and com- 
prehend the destiny about to be consummated. 
hat constitutes density of st is A question Not easy 
to answer, when it relates to civilized communities, so wonder- 
fully has Providence ordained that with fresh demands, and the 
heavier pressure of necessity, fresh resources should be found in 
nature for human sustenance ; but in reference to uncivilized man, 
linked to nature by stronger ties, and having his existence bo und 
Up, as it were, with those of her provisions which do not greatly 
vary from age to age, and are not so beyond our means of esti- 
mation, it does not seem impossible to assign limits beyond which 
his numbers can never far extend, and within which there is no 
reason that they should much vary, unless by the operation of 
external causes. However, I have no intention of attempting 
such an estimate here. We have evidence in the great earth- 
works of Ohit, requiring an immense number of hands for their 
construction, that at some period a considerable population oecu- 
pied the fertile valleys of that region. We know that agricultural 
pursuits prevailed among many tribes, which have since almost 
completely abandoned them; but with all this, it is difficult to 
avoid the conclusion, based ‘on the desolating habits of Indian 
warfare, on the severity of the climate, and on the degraded posi- 
tion of the female sex, that upon the whole, the population of the 
middle and northern portion of the continent must, at all times, 
have been small in proportion to its area, and never on a par with 
the simplest of all natural resources, the animal life of the region. 
he materials for a specific estimate of their numbers at any 
One early period, are exceedingly scanty. ‘The early travellers 
dealt in round numbers to an alarming extent. ‘“ Qui dit un 
Canton @ Iroquois” says de la Hontan, “ dit un douzaine mil- 
ters dames. It s’en est trouve jusqu’a quatorze mille et Von 
calculait ce nombre par deux mille Vieillards, quatre mille Fem- 
mes, deux mille Filles, et — mille Enfans.” And as there 
were then five such cantons, or Nations, this people, if the Baron 
or his authorities can be a POE counted, considerably less than 
two centuries ago, from sixty to seventy thousand souls. Yet he 
perverting facts in reference to the more remote tribes they vis- 
ited, by way of discouraging rivalry in their lucrative trade, must 
have clung to them when discussing those nearer home. ally 
apochryphal, I xia a suspect, must be the 20,000 warriors, 
whom King Oppecancanough somewhat eco os related to have 
led les the catieek in Virginia. Yet these other similar 
ements, which it would be easy to multiply, if they fail to far- 
— a numerical basis for comparison, convey a general idea o of 
Populousness, which, as compared with what is ‘known of our 
