AMERICA. 227 



ment, shall be recorded under these particular countries. We 

 now proceed to treat of the manners, government, religion, and what- 

 ever composes the character of the natives ot America; and as these 

 are extremely similar all over this part of the globe, we shall speak 

 ot them in general, in order to save continual repetitions, noticing at 

 the same time, when we enter upon the description of the particular 

 countries, whatever is peculiar or remarkable in the inhabitants of 

 each, 



OF THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF AMERICA. 



The discovery of America has not only opened a new source of 

 wealth to the busy commercial part of Europe, but an extensive field 

 oi speculation to the philosopher who would trace the character .of 

 man under various degrees of refinement, and observe the movements 

 of the human heart, or the operations of the human understanding, 

 when untutored by science, or untainted by corruption. So striking 

 seemed the disparity between the inhabitants of Europe and the 

 natives of America, that some speculative men have ventured to 

 affirm, that it is impossible they should be of the same species, or 

 derived from one common source. This conclusion, however, is ex- 

 tremely ill-founded. The characters of mankind may be infinitely 

 varied according to the different degrees of improvement at which 

 they are arrived, the manner in which they acquire the necessaries 

 of life, the force of custom and habit, and a multiplicity of other cir- 

 cumstances too particular to be mentioned, and too various io be 

 reduced under any general head. But the great outlines of humanity 

 are to be discovered among them all, notwithstanding the various 

 shades which characterise nations, and distinguish them from each 

 other. 



When the thirst of gold carried the inhabitants of Europe beyond 

 the Atlantic, they found the inhabitants of the new world immersed in 

 what they call barbarism, but which, however, was a state of honest 

 independence, and noble simplicity. Except the inhabitants of the 

 great empires ot Peru and Mexico, who, comparatively speaking, 

 were refined nations, the natives of America were unacquainted with 

 almost every European art ; even agriculture itself, the most useful 

 of them all, was hardly known, or cultivated very sparingly. The 

 only method on which they depended for acquiring the necessaries of 

 life, was by hunting the wild animals, which their mountains and for- 

 ests supplied in great abundance. This exercise, which among them 

 is a most serious occupation, gives a strength and agility to their 

 limbs, unknown among other nations. The same cause, perhaps, 

 renders their bodies, in general, where the rays of the sun are not 

 too violent, uncommonly straight and well-proportioned. Their mus- 

 cles are firm and strong ; their bodies and heads flattish, which is 

 the effect of art; their features are regular, but their countenances 

 fierce ; their hair long, black, lank, and as strong as that of a horse, 

 The colour of their skin is reddish brown, admired among them, and 

 heightened by the constant use of bear's fat and paint. The charac- 

 ter of the Indians is altogether founded upon their circumstances and 

 way of life. A people who are constantly employed in procuring the 

 means of precarious subsistence, who live by hunting the wild animals, 

 and who are generally engaged in war with their neighbours, cannot 



