so VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



for in him the domestic virtues are but partially expanded. War and the chase, 

 on the other hand, call forth all his energies. Hunger, fatigue and toil, are 

 encountered without a murmur, and the mind, goaded on by the powerful impulse 

 of ambition or revenge, becomes untiring and indomitable. The firmness of 

 purpose, its attendant privations, and the final contest with a courageous adversary, 

 give a seductive exaltation to the character of the American savage. He returns 

 to his home, he is greeted by the applauding shouts of his countrymen, and the 

 bloody deeds of a crafty and destroying spirit are recounted, even in civilised 

 communities, as acts of heroism and greatness. How transient is this seeming 

 glory ! The excitement of the moment has passed away, and where is the 

 warrior now ? For him domestic life has no charms, and tranquillity resolves 

 itself into the most grovelling pastimes. Behold him lounging under the shade 

 of a tree, the victim of apathy and sloth, too vain to cultivate his fields, or to 

 raise a hand for his own support, while he looks with complacency on the toils of 

 a mother, a wife, or a daughter, whom the barbarous usages of Indian thraldom 

 have condemned to perpetual slavery. To such an extent is this servitude 

 carried, that mothers not unfrequently destroy their female children, alleging as a 

 reason that it is better they should die than live to lead a life so miserable as that 

 to which they are doomed ;* while among some tribes grief and jealousy drive the 

 women to suicide.f The Indian is habitually cold in his manner to the gentler 

 sex, and stern to his children, considering it unmanly to show much tenderness to 

 either. This exterior reserve, however, is by no means indicative of their real 

 character ; for after all that has been said to the contrary, these people are not 

 remarkable for the purity of their morals. The very reverse, indeed, is true; for 

 when they throw off the mask of reserve which they habitually assume in the 

 presence of strangers, they are observed to be as much depraved by vice and 

 sensuality as most other barbarous nations.} 



The Americans are, perhaps, less swayed by superstitious fears than most 

 other savages ; and their religion, if it merits the name, is more remarkable for its 

 poverty than its grossness. It is chiefly a simple theism which acknowledges a 

 good and an evil spirit ; the former of course exerting a benign influence on the 



* Bradbury, Trav. in Amer. p. 89.— Depens. Voy. a la Terre Ferme, T, p. 302. 



t Keating, Exped. to the St. Peters, I, p. 227, 395. 



t See Bradbury, Trav. in Amer. p. 37, 149, 154. Jim. cof.— Keating, Exped. I, p. 224.— De 

 AzARA, IT, p. 115.— Lewis and Clark, Exped. I, p. 105, 421; II, p. 134.— Muratori, Missions of 

 Paraguay, p. 29. 



