CE-^^ 



1853.] 



JSTATIVE INDIAN POPULATION OF BRITISH AMEKICA. 



€\)t €mM\m ^imrnal 



TORONTO, APRIL, 1853. 



On the Probatle f^umber of the Native Indian Population of 

 BrJtisk Auerica: Captain J. H. tefroy, Koyal Artillery. 



(read before the CANADIAN INSTITUTE, MAY 1, 1852.) 



There are probably few persons wbo, in the course of their 

 reading in history, have not dwelt with peculiar interest upon the 

 glimpses we catch through the mists of the past, of whole races 

 of men that have vanished from the face of the earth, leaving no 

 hell's or representatives to inherit the richer blessings of our age : 

 of nations whose part in the great drama of human life we can 

 never ascertain, whose sages are forgotten, ^vhose warriors lie with 



193 



to 38 in 1848.* It even appears doubtful, whether that most 

 interesting of all savage races, the Maoris of New Zealand, -with 

 its wonderful force of character, and fixculty for civilization, will 

 not die out faster than it can conform to its altered condition. 

 Like those silent yet ceaseless operations of nature, which are 

 wearing down, while we speak, the solid matter of every moun- 

 tain chain, and water course on the globe, and substituting the 

 luxuriant ^'eg■etat^on of the tropical coral reef for the barren waste 

 of the sea; so, slowly and imperceptibly, are the great changes 

 effected, by which one race supercedes another in the occupation 

 of portion after portion of the globe, bringing higher qualities, a 

 ditlerent moral and physical organization^ to work out hio-her 

 destinies, and fulfil higher ends ofl,he same controuhno- Providence. 



These reflections have been suggested by the subject of the 

 paper which I now propose to lay "before this Society, containino- 

 the result of some enquiries 1 have made with a view to forming 

 something like an authentic estimate of the number of the Indian 

 race inhabiting the British possessions in America. A portion 

 only, it is true, of the whole race, yet one which by reason of the 

 great extent of those possessions, is commonly regarded as a very 

 impoi-tant one. If, as I think, it can be shown, that number is 



" the mighty that were before Agaraennon" in the obscurity of vastly smaller than most persons would suppose, and very rapidly 

 ' "' " - •• diminishing, under circumstances which are nevertheless by no 



means uufavourablo to its preservation ; then it must be admitted 

 thfit the prospects for the race at large are anything but encour- 

 aging — that the time may not be far remote when posterity may 

 be counting its last remnants, and wishing that we in our day 

 had been more alive to the facts, and more industrious in settintj 

 up marks by which they might measure the ebbing tide, and 

 comprehend the destiny about to be consummated. 



obli\'ion. Then we may remember " how small a part of time 

 we share'' whose interests are so momentous for eternity ; and 

 may recognize, in the force of our sympathy, in the eagerness 

 with which we interrogate the monuments that have descended 

 to us ; in the curiosity which all their reserve cannot bafils ; a 

 testimony to the truth of the declaration of the sacred historian, 

 that the Creator ' hath made of one blood all the nations upon 

 earth' ; as well as the tie of relationship which unites all the 

 descendants of our common parents, whatever their place in the 

 stream, or their fortunes on the stage of life. 



Naturalists have been able to number some half-dozen birds 

 or animals that have become totally extinct within the period of 

 authentic history. We have lately seen what general rejoicing, 

 the discovery of a living specimen of one previously ranked in 

 that number (the Apterix), has created among them. The skull, 

 the foot, and a few rude pictures of the Dodo, have furnished 

 ample material for a quarto volume. How many might be 

 written on the \-arieties of the human race that have ceased to 

 exist within the same period ! The Dodo was perfectly common 

 at the Isles de Bourbon two centuries ago, it was neglected, hunt- 

 ed down, exterminated accordingly : and the Dutch seamen who 

 made an easy prey of whole flocks, twenty or thirty at 

 a time, in 1602, (the Dodo, page 15,J no more suspected 

 that we should now be ransacking all the museums of 

 Europe for scraps to elucidate its aflinities, than the first settlers 

 of Newfoundland did that we should also be seeking in vain for 

 cue relic of its aborigines. When happy and hospitable crowds 

 welcomed the Spaniards to the shores of Hispaniola, those 

 cavaliers little dreamt that in three centuries or less the numerous 

 and warlike Caribs of that Island, like the Gauchos of the 

 Canaries, would be extinct, as completely so as the Architects of 

 the Cyclopean remains of Italy, or the race that preceded Saxon 

 and Dane, and Celt, in the occupation of the British Isles. In 

 half a century there will be no trace of a native race in some cf 

 the British colonies in the east. The natives of Van Dieman's 

 Land, for example, who numbered 210 in 1835, were reduced 

 Vol. I, No. 9, April, 1853. 



What constitutes density of population, 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 

 bound 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 estimation, 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 Earthen 

 Works of Ohio, requiring an immense number of hands for their 

 erection, that at some period a considerable population occupied 

 the fertile vallies of that region. We know that Ao-ricultural 

 pursuits prevailed among many tribes, which have since almost 

 completely abandoned them ; but with all this, it is diflScult to 

 a\oid the conclusion, based on the desolating habits of Indian 

 wariiu-e, on the severity of the climate, and on the degraded posi- 

 tion of the female sex, that upon the whole, the po]Juiation 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. The materials for a specific estimate of their numbers 

 at any one eariy period, are exceedingly scanty. The early tra- 

 vellers dealt in round numbers to an alarming extent. '■ Qui 

 dit un Canton d' Iroquois " says de la Hontan, "dit un douzaine 

 inillier.'', d^ames. It s'en est trouve ji/sqiia quatorze mille et 

 Von calcidait ce nombre par deux mille Vieillards quatre mille 

 Fcmmes, deux mille Filles, et quatre mille JSnfans.'" And as there 

 were then five such cantons oi- Nations, this jieople, if the Barou 

 (jv his authorities can be trusted, counted considerably less than 



* Our Antipiidcs by Colonel G. Mundy, 1852— Vol. II. 



