44 Of the Checks to Population Bk< i. 



living, cut off considerable numbers in the prime 

 of life. They are likewise extremely subject to 

 consumptions, to pleuritic, asthmatic, and para- 

 lytic disorders, brought on by the immoderate 

 hardships and fatigues which they endure in 

 hunting and war, and by the inclemency of the 

 seasons, to which they are continually exposed.* 

 The missionaries speak of the Indians in South 

 America as subject to perpetual diseases for 

 which they know no remedy. | Ignorant of the 

 use of the most simple herbs, or of any change 

 in their gross diet, they die of these diseases in 

 great numbers. The Jesuit Fauque says, that, in 

 all the different excursions which he had made, he 

 scarcely found a single individual of an advanced 

 age. X Robertson determines the period of human 

 life to be shorter among savages than in well-re- 

 gulated and industrious communities. § Raynal, 

 notwithstanding his frequent declamations in 

 favour of savage life, says of the Indians of 

 Canada, that few are so long lived as our people, 

 whose manner of living is more uniform and tran- 

 quil. || And Cook and P6rouse confirm these 

 opinions in the remarks which they make on 

 some of the inhabitants of the north-west coast of 

 America.^] 



* Robertson, b. iv. p. 86. Charlevoix, torn. iii. p. 364. Lafitau, 

 torn. ii. p. 360, 361. 



*T Lettres Edif. torn. viii. p. 83. 



j Lettres Edif. torn. vii. p. 317. et seq. 



§ B. iv. p. 86. 



|| Raynal, b. xv. p. 23. 



% Cook, third Voy. vol. iii. ch. ii. p. 520. Voy. de Perouse, 

 ch. ix. 



