50 Of the Checks to Population Bk. i. 



nation." If they solicit the aid of a neighbouring- 

 tribe, they invite them to eat broth made of the 

 flesh of their enemies.* Among the Abnakis, 

 when a body of their warriors enters an enemy's 

 territory, it is generally divided into different par- 

 ties, of thirty or forty; and the chief says to each, 

 •''To you is given such a hamlet to eat, to you such 

 a village,"! & c « These expressions remain in the 

 language of some of the tribes, in which the custom of 

 eating their prisoners taken in war no longer exists. 

 Cannibalism, however, undoubtedly prevailed in 

 many parts of the new world ;$ and, contrary to 

 the opinion of Dr. Robertson, I cannot but think 

 that it must have had its origin in extreme want, 

 though the custom might afterwards be continued 

 from other motives. It seems to be a worse com- 

 pliment to human nature and to the savage state, 

 to attribute this horrid repast to malignant pas- 

 sions, without the goad of necessity, rather than 

 to the great law of self-preservation, which has at 

 times overcome every other feeling, even among 

 the most humane and civilized people. When 

 once it had prevailed, though only occasionally, 

 from this cause ; the fear that a savage might feel 

 of becoming a repast to his enemies, might easily 

 raise the passion of rancour and revenge to so high 

 a pitch, as to urge him to treat his prisoners in 

 this way, though not prompted at the time by 

 hunger. 



* Robertson b. iv. p. 164. 



f Lettres Edif. torn. vi. p. 205. 



% Robertson, b. iv. p. 1G4. 



