Ch. iv. among the American Indians. G3 



*e> 



such a change in their habits, I do not conceive 

 that there would have been a single nation of hun- 

 ters and fishers remaining ; but it is evident that 

 some fortunate train of circumstances, in addition 

 to this stimulus, is necessary for the purpose ; 

 and it is undoubtedly probable, that these arts of 

 obtaining food will be first invented and improved 

 in those spots which are best suited to them, and 

 where the natural fertility of the situation, by 

 allowing a greater number of people to subsist 

 together, would give the fairest chance to the 

 inventive powers of the human mind. 



Among most of the American tribes that we 

 have been considering, so great a degree of equal- 

 ity prevailed that all the members of each com- 

 munity would be nearly equal sharers in the ge- 

 neral hardships of savage life and in the pressure 

 of occasional famines. But in many of the more 

 southern nations, as in Bogota,* and among the 

 Natchez,| and particularly in Mexico and Peru, 

 where a great distinction of ranks prevailed, and 

 the lower classes were in a state of absolute ser- 

 vitude^ it is probable that, on occasion of any 

 failure of subsistence, these would be the princi- 

 pal sufferers, and that the positive checks to po- 

 pulation would act almost exclusively on this 

 part of the community. 



The very extraordinary depopulation that has 

 taken place among the American Indians, may 



* Robertson, b. iv. p. 141. 



f Lettrcs Edif. torn. vii. p. 21. Robertson, b. iv. p. 139. 



X Robertson, b. vii. p. 190, 242. 



