210 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



were attached to agriculture, and disposed 

 to settle in villages, or to form different kinds 

 of associations ; whilst the latter, with very- 

 few exceptions, have never yet been induced 

 to approximate, even in the slightest degree, 

 towards any kind of civilized association, or 

 to cultivate the earth. 



Of course, amongst races of men extend- 

 ing through such an immense distance of 

 territory, there is, and must be, a variety 

 of shades of difference, as to habit and 

 disposition ; but the general characteristics 

 remain the same. It thence results, that 

 whilst the extension of civilization in North 

 America, by means of pushing forward, as it 

 were, new provinces of the United States, 

 tends to decrease the Indian population, by 

 diminishing their hunting grounds, from 

 which alone they derive their means of sub- 

 sistence ; the progress of civilization in South 

 America tends, with some exceptions, to 



