capacity fhould be known, before we proceed to examine thofe which arife from the latter relation. This is peculiarly neceffary in inveftigating the manners of rude nations. Their political union is fo incomplete, their civil inftiftutions and regulations fo few, fo fimple, and of fuch flender authority, that men in this state ought to be viewed rather as independent agents, than as members of a regular fociety. The character of a favage refults almoft entirely from his fentiments or feelings as an individual, and is but little influenced by his imperfect subjection to government and order. I fhall conduct my refearches concerning the manners of the Americans in this natural order, proceeding gradually from what is fimple to what is more complicated.

I fhall confider, I. The bodily conftitution. of the Americans in thofe regions now under review. II. The qualities of their minds. III. Their domestic state. IV. Their political state and inftitutions. V. Their fyftem of war, and public fecurity. VI. The arts with which they were acquainted. VII. Their religious ideas and inftitutions. VIII. Such fingular detached customs as are not reducible to any of the former heads. IX. I fhall conclude with a general review and estimate of their virtues and defects.

I. The bodily constitution of the Americans. -The human body is lefs affected by climate than that of any other animal. Some animals are confined to a particular region of the globe, and cannot exist beyond it; others, though they may be brought to bear the injuries of a climate foreign to them, ceafe to multiply when carried

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out of that diftrict which Nature deftined to be their manfion. Even fuch as feem capable of being naturalized in various climates, feel the effect of every remove from their proper ftation, and gradually dwindle and degenerate from the vigour and perfection peculiar to their fpecies. Man is the only living creature whose frame is at once fo hardy and fo flexible, that he can fpread over the whole earth, become the inhabitant of every region, and thrive and multiply under every climate. Subject, however, to the general law of nature, the human body is not entirely exempt from the operation of climate; and when exposed to the extremes either of heat or cold, its fize or vigour diminishes.

The firft appearance of the inhabitants of the New World, filled the discoverers with fuch aftonishment, that they were apt to imagine them a race of men different from thofe of the other hemifphere. Their complexion is of a reddish brown, nearly refembling the colour of coppery. The hair of their heads is always black, long, coarfe, and uncurled. They have no beard, and every part of their body is perfectly smooth. Their perfons are of a full fize, extremely ftraight and well proportioned. Their features are regular, though often diftorted by abfurd endeavours to improve the beauty of their natural form, or to render their aspect more dreadful to their enemies. In the islands, where four-footed animals were both few and fmall, and the earth yielded her productions almoft fpontaneously, the conftitution of the natives, neither braced by y Oviedo Somario, p. 46, D. Life of Columbus, c. 24. * See NOTE XLIV.

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the active exercises of the chace, nor invigorated by the labour of cultivation, was extremely feeble and languid. On the continent, where the forefts abound with game of various kinds, and the chief occupation of many tribes was to purfue it, the human frame acquired greater firmnefs. Still, however, the Americans were more remarkable for agility than strength. They resembled beasts of prey, rather than animals formed for labour a. They were not only averse to toil, but incapable of it; and when roufed by force from their native indolence, and compelled to work, they funk under tasks which the people of the other continent would have performed with eafeb. This feebleness of conftitution was univerfal among the inhabitants of those regions in America which we are furveying, and may be confidered as characteristic of the fpecies there.

The beardlefs countenance and fmooth skin of the American seems to indicate a defect of vigour, occafioned by fome vice in his frame. He is deftitute of one fign of manhood and of ftrength. This peculiarity, by which the inhabitants of the New World are diftinguished from the people of all other nations, cannot be attributed, as fome travellers have supposed, to their mode of fubfiftenced. For though the food of many Americans be extremely infipid, as they are altogether unacquainted with the use a See NOTE XLV. b Oviedo Som. p. 51, C. Voy. de Correal, ii. 138. Wafer's Description, p. 131.

B. Las Cafas Brev. Relac. p. 4. Torquem. Monar. i. 580. Oviedo Somario, p. 41. Hiftor. lib. iii. c. 6. Herrera, dec. 1. lib. ix. c. 5. Simon, p. 41.

d Charlev. Hift. de Nouv. Fr. iii. 310.

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of falt, rude tribes in other parts of the earth have fubfifted on aliments equally simple, without this mark of degradation, or any apparent fymptom of a diminution in their vigour.

As the external form of the Americans leads us to fufpect that there is fome natural debility in their frame, the fmallness of their appetite for food has been mentioned by many authors as a confirmation of this fufpicion. The quantity of food which men confume varies according to the temperature of the climate in which they live, the degree of activity which they exert, and the natural vigor of their conftitutions. Under the enervating heat of the torrid zone, and when men pass their days in indolence and eafe, they require less nourishment than the active inhabitants of temperate or cold countries. But neither the warmth of their climate, nor their extreme laziness, will account for the uncommon defect of appetite among the Ameri cans. The Spaniards were aftonished with obferving this, not only in the islands, but in feveral parts of the continent. The constitutional temperance of the natives far exceeded, in their opinion, the abftinence of the most mortified hermits; while, on the other hand, the appetite of the Spaniards appeared to the Americans infatiably voracious; and they affirmed, that one Spaniard devoured more food in a day than was fufficient for ten Americans f.

A proof of fome feebleness in their frame, ftill more ftriking, is the infenfibility of the Americans to the charms of beauty, and the power

Ramufio, iif. 304, F. 306, A. Simon Conquista, &c. ́p. 39. Hakluyt, iii. 468. 508. Herrera, dec. I. Bib. ii. c. 16.

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of love. That paffion which was destined to perpetuate life, to be the bond of focial union, and the fource of tenderness and joy, is the most ardent in the human breaft. Though the perils and hardships of the favage ftate, though exceffive fatigue, on fome occafions, and the difficulty at all times of procuring fubfiftence, may feem to be adverse to this paflion, and to have a tendency to abate its vigour, yet the rudeft nations iu every other part of the globe feem to feel its influence more powerfully than the inhabitants of the New World. The negro glows with all the warmth of defire natural to his climate; and the most uncultivated Afiatics difcover that fenfibility, which, from their fituation on the globe, we should expect them to have felt. But the Americans are, in an amazing degree, ftrangers to the force of this first instinct of nature. In every part of the New World the natives treat their women with coldness and indifference. They are neither the objects of that tender attachment which takes place in civilized fociety, nor of that ardent defire confpicuous among rude nations. Even in climates where this paffion ufually acquires its greatest vigour, the favage of America views his female with difdain, as an animal of a lefs noble fpecies. He is at no pains to win her favour by the affiduity of courtship, and ftill lefs folicitous to preferve it by indulgence and gentleness. Miffionaries themselves, notwithstand

Hennepin Mœurs des Sauvages, 32, &c. Rochefort Hift. des Ifles Antilles, p. 461. Voyage de Coreal, ii. 141. Ramufio, iii. 309. F. Lozano Defer. del Gran Chaco, 71. Falkner's Defcr. of Patagon. p. 125. Lettere di P. Cataneo ap. Muratori Il Chriftian. Felice, i. 305.

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