CHAPTER 3

The savage or hunter state shortly reviewed--The shepherd state,
or the tribes of barbarians that overran the Roman Empire--The
superiority of the power of population to the means of
subsistence--the cause of the great tide of Northern Emigration.


In the rudest state of mankind, in which hunting is the principal
occupation, and the only mode of acquiring food; the means of
subsistence being scattered over a large extent of territory, the
comparative population must necessarily be thin. It is said that
the passion between the sexes is less ardent among the North
American Indians, than among any other race of men. Yet,
notwithstanding this apathy, the effort towards population, even
in this people, seems to be always greater than the means to
support it. This appears, from the comparatively rapid population
that takes place, whenever any of the tribes happen to settle in
some fertile spot, and to draw nourishment from more fruitful
sources than that of hunting; and it has been frequently remarked
that when an Indian family has taken up its abode near any
European settlement, and adopted a more easy and civilized mode of
life, that one woman has reared five, or six, or more children;
though in the savage state it rarely happens that above one or
two in a family grow up to maturity. The same observation has
been made with regard to the Hottentots near the Cape. These
facts prove the superior power of population to the means of
subsistence in nations of hunters, and that this power always
shews itself the moment it is left to act with freedom.