154 EARLY HISTORY DF MANKIND. 



generally barbarous. A striking instance is described in 

 the laborious work of Mr. Catlin on the North-American 

 tribes. Far placed among those which inhabit the vast 

 region of the north-west, and quite beyond the reach of 

 any influence from the whites, he found a small tribe 

 living in a fortified village, where they cultivated the arts 

 of manufacture, realized comforts and luxuries, and had 

 attained to a remarkable refinement of manners, insomuch 

 as to be generally called the polite and friendly Mandans. 

 They were also more than usually elegant in their per- 

 sons, and of every variety of complexion between that of 

 their compatriots and a pure white. Up to the time of 

 Mr. Catlin's visit, these people had been able to defend 

 themselves and their possessions against the roving bands 

 which surrounded them on all sides ; but, soon after, 

 they were attacked by small-pox, which cut them all off 

 except a small party, whom their enemies rushed in upon 

 and destroyed to a man. What is this but a repetition 

 on a small scale of phenomena with which ancient his- 

 tory familiarizes us — a nation rising in arts and elegances 

 amidst barbarous neighbors, but at length overpowered 

 by the rude majority, leaving only a Tadmor or a Luxor 

 as a monument of itself to beautify the waste ? What 

 can we suppose the nation which built Palenque and 

 Copan to have been, but only a Mandan tribe, which 

 chanced to have made its way further along the path of 

 civilization and the arts, before the barbarians broke in 

 upon it ? The flame essayed to rise in many parts of the 

 earth ; but there were always considerable chances 

 against it, and down it accordingly went, times without 

 number ; but there was always a vitality in it, neverthe- 

 less, and a tendency to progress, and at length it seems 

 to have attained a strength against which the powers of 

 barbarism can never more prevail. The state of our 

 knowledge of uncivilized nations is very apt to make us 

 fall into error on this subject. They are generally sup- 

 posed to be all at one point in barbarism, w r hich is far 

 from being the case, for in the midst of every great re- 

 gion of uncivilized men, such as North America, there 

 are nations partially refined. The Jolofs, Mandingoes, 

 and Kafirs are African examples, where a natural and 

 independent origin for tne improvement which exists is as 

 unavoidably to be presumed as in the case of the Mandans 

 The most conlusive argument against the original civL 



