CHAPTER VII. STATISTICS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, &c. As some demand has been made upon the sympathies of the reader in the foregoing pages of this and the first volume, in behalf of the unfortunate race of American Aborigines, (for unfortunate truly they are,) it is proper, that we should be informed of their numbers-although it is hoped his kind regard for them will not be measured by such an accident, unless, as is very suitable, he shall feel for them so much the more, as he finds they have dwindled away from a once numerous and formidable people to an inconsiderable remnant, no more to be dreaded for their influence, or prowess. Time was when they were feared, when they might have swept the European settlements into the sea, and retained an exclusive possession of the American continent, even to this day; and that, too, in spite of any probable efforts that would have been made, had they been united in counsel, or anticipated the cruel treatment, themselves and their children. were destined to receive. They were formidable for ages, and some of their tribes have been able to maintain war against the whites, even since the United States became an independent Government; and have treated with that power, in stipulations for peace, on a footing of equality, and on terms of mutual privilege and respect, such as is commonly rendered by one civilized state to another in similar transactions.* Formal and solemn treaties have been entered into, by which the relative rights of the parties have been specified, and guaranteed by the faith of the covenants. But the Indians, in immediate contact with the whites, have been gradually declining in numbers and importance, while their civilized neighbours have been constantly multiplying, and spreading themselves out with unexampled rapidity; until the former have ceased to assert their original prerogatives of independence, and been themselves thrown entirely upon the faith of treaties, existing between them and the governments, with which they have become connected, * See Appendix. or upon the generosity of the community. Some tribes have lost existence altogether, and are not to be found. All the powerful nations of the East, (we call them powerful in comparison with other tribes,) that were found there in the former periods of the seventeenth century, have dwindled, some to a few scores in each tribe-and none of them are reckoned by thousands. The estimate for New England two years ago was 2247, comprehending the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The State of New York, at the same time reckoned 5184. Most of the States have a few Indians. The largest tribes east of the Mississippi river are in the south, in the States of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. And the whole number east of the same boundary, according to the estimate of Dr. Morse in his report to Congress in 1821, was 120,346; west of the Mississippi at the same time, 350,780; making in all, within the jurisdiction of the United States, from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific, 471,126. I am aware, that more recent reports to the American Congress have somewhat reduced these numbers. But I confess myself a little jealous of statistics on this subject, made out by authorities, which felt an interest in reducing the numbers as low as possible; as if their comparative importance, and the value of justice distributed to them, were to be measured by the number of individuals, belonging to their race. The writer in the North American, with whom we have had to do in another place, professes to quote the latest public documents, relating to this point, in the War Office; and makes the total of Indians in all the States and territories of the Union, 312,040-of whom 104,971 are to be found east of the Mississippi. The difference in the grand total between this statement and that of Dr. Morse, is 159,086; and nearly 16,000 less on the east of the Mississippi. Considering, that the Indians could not, in any probability, have decreased much within the last ten years; considering the confidence due to Dr. Morse's opportunities of information, fidelity of research, and long custom in the common tasks of a geographer; regarding the Reviewer's obvious and apparently great anxiety to detract in all possible ways from the importance of the Indians; and presuming, that this is the common esprit du corps of all, who have been recently and officially concerned in Indian affairs of the United States; I take upon myself, for such reasons, the liberty of reposing more confidence in the greater number, than in the less. And inasmuch, as there are numerous Indian tribes, in the western regions of North America, as yet but very little known, and the difficulties of obtaining an accurate census, from the nature of the circumstances, being very great, we are perhaps justified in concluding,-that there must be at least a half-million of Indians within the jurisdiction of the United States. Allowing an equal number to the British dominions of North America, (whether there are more or less I am unable to say) one million of American Aborigines, the remnants of ancient and powerful nations, worthy of respect, at least for what their ancestors were, scattered over the territories of the United States and British America, their pride humbled, their spirits dejected, forced from the graves of their fathers, and doomed to wander without a resting-place; the white population perpetually crowding upon them, and pushing them backward still, until they are threatened to be driven into the Pacific Ocean, or extinguished for ever as a race from off the face of the earth;-one million, we will suppose, of these immortal beings, supplanted by Europeans and their descendants, ejected by violence from the territories, which their fathers, as themselves say, received from the Great Spirit, (occupied certainly by them from time immemorial) denied a voice in |