46 Of the Checks to Population Bk. i. 



without seeing the same number of inhabitants. 

 Deserted villages were frequent, each of which 

 was large enough to contain all the scattered sa- 

 vages that had been observed in that extent of 

 country. In the different excursions which he 

 made, particularly about Port Discovery, the 

 skulls, limbs, ribs and back-bones, or some other 

 vestiges of the human body, were scattered pro- 

 miscuously in great numbers ; and, as no warlike 

 scars were observed on the bodies of the remain- 

 ing Indians, and no particular signs of fear and 

 suspicion were noticed, the most probable con- 

 jecture seems to be, that this depopulation must 

 have been occasioned by pestilential disease.* 

 The small-pox appears to be common and fatal 

 among the Indians on this coast. Its indelible 

 marks were observed on many, and several had 

 lost the sight of one eye from it.f 



In general, it may be remarked of savages, that, 

 from their extreme ignorance, the dirt of their 

 persons, and the closeness and filth of their 

 cabins,^ they lose the advantage which usually 

 attends a thinly peopled country, that of being- 

 more exempt from pestilential diseases than those 

 which are fully inhabited. In some parts of 

 America the houses are built for the reception of 



* Vancouver's Voy. vol. i. b. ii. c. v. p. 256. 



t Id. c. iv. p. 242. 



% Charlevoix speaks in the strongest terms of the extreme filth 

 and stench of the American cabins, " On ne peut entrer dans km s 

 " cabanes qu'on ne soit impeste:" and the dirt of their meals, he 

 says, " vous feroit horreur." Vol. in. p. 338. 



