the United States, the whole number of fighting men would be 1,800.

In 1783, Mr. Kirkland the missionary, estimated the number of warriors in the Seneca nation, at 600. This would make the whole population 2,000; and as the Senecas then composed nearly one half of the whole Confederacy, the fighting men would be about 1,200, and the total number of inhabitants, upwards of 4,000. In 1790, he calculated the whole population of the confedera cy, including those who reside on Grand River in Canada, and the Stockbridge and Brothertown Indians, to be 6,330. This would make the number of warriors near 1,900.

In 1794, on the division of an annuity of 4,500 dollars, given to them by the United States, their number was ascertained with considerable precision; each individual in the Confederacy, (except those residing in the British dominions) receiving an equal share.

Making in the whole 4,058 The Stockbridge

and Brothertown Indians, are not included. This would make the number of fighting men, 1,352.

These various estimates evince the great uncertainty prevailing on this subject. While La Hon

tan exaggerates the population of the Confederacy, Smith evidently underrates it. We know that in their wars, they often sent out considerable armies. They attacked the Island of Montreal with 1200 men; and in 1683, 1,000 marched at one time, against the Ottagamies. The first was in 1689; twelve years after Col. Coursey's estimate. Supposing that 1200 warriors, were at that time at home, and otherwise employed the whole number would then be about 2,400; which shews a considerable coincidence between the two statements. On one point there is, however, no uncertainty. Ever since the men of Europe landed on the shores of America, there has been a diminution of the number of Aborigines-sometimes rapid-at other times gradual. The present condition of the Confederates, furnishes an admonitory lesson to human pride; and adds another proof to the many on record, that nations, like individuals, are destined by Providence to dissolution. Their patrimonial estates their antient dwelling lands-are now crowded with a white population-excepting some reservations in the Oneida, Onondaga and Seneca countries. The Mohawks abandoned their country during the war; and the Cayugas have, since the peace. A remnant of the Tuscaroras reside on three miles square, near the Niagara River, on lands given to them by the Senecas and the Holland land company. The Oneida reservation does not contain more than 10,000 acres; and the Onondaga is still smaller. The Senecas have their principal settlement at Buffaloe Creek. Their reservations are extensive and valuable, containing more than 160,000 acres and they possess upwards of 100,000 dollars in the stock of the late bank of the U. States.

The Six nations have lost their high character and elevated standing. They are, in general, ad

dicted to idleness and drunkenness-the remnant of their eloquence and military spirit, as well as national strength, is to be found only among the Senecas. Their antient men, who have witnessed the former glory and prosperity of their country, and who have heard from the mouths of their ancestors, the heroic achievements of their countrymen, weep like infants, when they speak of the fallen condition of the nation. They, however, derive some consolation from a prophecy of antient origin and universal currency among them, that the man of America will, at some future time, regain his antient ascendency, and expel the man of Europe from this western hemisphere. This flattering and consolatory persuasion, has restrained in some degree their vicious propensities; has enabled the Seneca and Shawanese prophets to arrest in some tribes the use of intoxicating liquors, and has given birth, at different periods, to certain movements towards a general confederacy of the savages of North America. That they consider the white man an enemy and an intruder, who has expelled them from their country, is most certain ; and they cherish this antipathy with so much rancor, that when they abandon their settlements, they make it a rule never to disclose to him any mineral substances or springs, which may redound to his convenience or advantage.

The causes of their degradation and diminution, are principally to be found in their baneful communication with the man of Europe; which has contaminated their morals, destroyed their population, robbed them of their country, and deprived them of their national spirit. Indeed, when we consider that the discovery and settlement of America, have exterminated millions of the red men, and entailed upon the sable inhabitants of Africa, endless and destructive wars, captivity, slavery and death, we

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have reason to shudder at the gloomy perspective, and to apprehend that, in the retributive justice of the Almighty, there may be some hidden thunder in the stores of Heaven, red with uncommon wrath, some portentous cloud pregnant with the elements of destruction, ready to burst upon European America, and to entail upon us those calamities, which we have so wantonly and wickedly inflicted upon others.

A nation that derives its subsistence, principally, from the forest, cannot live in the vicinity of one that relies upon the products of the field. The clearing of the country drives off the wild beasts; and when the game fails, the hunter must starve, change his occupation, or retire from the approach of cultivation. The Savage has invariably preferred the last. The Mohawks were, at one period, the most numerous canton; but they soon became the smallest. This was on account of their propinquity to the whites; while the Senecas, who are most remote, are the most populous. There are two other causes which have contributed to the destruction of the Mohawks-their extreme ferocity, which distinguished them from the other cantons, and which exposed them to greater perils; and the early seduction of a part of their nation by the French, who prevailed upon them to migrate to Canada. The scarcity of food has also been augmented by other causes, besides that of cultivating the ground. Formerly they killed for the sake of subsistence: the Europeans instigated them to kill for the sake of the furs and skins. The use of firearms has had the effect, by the explosion of powder, of frightening away the game; and at the same time, of enabling the savage to compass their destruction with greater facility, than by his antient weapon the bow and arrow, whose execution was less certain, and whose operation was less terrific.. G

The old Scythian propensity for wandering from place to place, and to make distant excursions, predominates among them. Some, after an absence of twenty years, have again shewn themselves, while others never return. Many of the Iroquois are amalgamated with the western Indians. In 1799, a colony of the Confederates, who had been brought up from their infancy under the Roman Catholic Missionaries, and instructed by them at a village, within nine miles of Montreal, emigrated to the banks of the Saskatchiwine River, beyond Lake Winnipeg.*

The endless and destructive wars in which they have been involved, have also been a principal cause of diminishing their population. The number of births among savage is always inferior to that among civilized nations, where subsistence is easier, and where the female sex are considered the companions, the friends and the equals of man ; and are associated and connected with him by the silken ties of choice and affection, not by the iron chains of compulsion and slavery. In times of war, the number of deaths among the Indians generally exceeded that of the births; and the Iroquois, for the last fifty years, not having been able to execute to any great extent their system of adoption, have experienced a correspondent diminution. The manner of savage warfare is also peculiarly destructive. Among civilized nations, great armies are brought into the field at once; and a few years and a great battle, decide the fortune of the war, and produce a peace. Among Indians, wars are carried on by small detachments and in detail, and for a long time. Among the former they operate like amputation-a limb is cut off, and the remainder of the body lives; but with

* 1 Mackenzie, 298.