64 Of the Checks to Population Bk. i. 



appear to some to contradict the theory which is 

 intended to be established; but it will be found 

 that the causes of this rapid diminution may all 

 be resolved into the three great checks to popu- 

 lation which have been stated ; and it is not as- 

 serted, that these checks, operating from parti- 

 cular circumstances with unusual force, may not, 

 in some instances, be more powerful even than 

 the principle of increase. 



The insatiable fondness of the Indians for 

 spirituous liquors,* which, according to Charlevoix, 

 is a rage that passes all expression,f by pro- 

 ducing among them perpetual quarrels and con- 

 tests which often terminate fatally, by exposing 

 them to a new train of disorders which their 

 mode of life unfits them to contend with, and by 

 deadening and destroying the generative faculty 

 in its very source, may alone be considered as a 

 vice adequate to produce the present depopula- 

 tion. In addition to this, it should be observed 

 that almost every where the connexion of the In- 

 dians with Europeans has tended to break their 

 spirit, to weaken or give a wrong direction to their 

 industry, and in consequence to diminish the 

 sources of subsistence. In St. Domingo, the In- 

 dians neglected purposely to cultivate their lands 

 in order to starve out their cruel oppressors.^ In 

 Peru and Chili, the forced industry of the natives 

 was fatally directed to the digging in the bowels 



* Major Rogers's Account of North America, p. 210. 



f Charlevoix, torn. iii. p. 302. 



X Robertson, b. ii. p. 1S5. Burke's America, vol. i. b. 300. 



