of the white men; and that their own habits of life, and internecine feuds, have been as destructive as the influence of the Europeans. In fact, the former overestimates of the numbers in some tribes, and of the aboriginal race, are now thought to have been as wild if not as poetical and visionary as the Indian traditions of their origin and mythical ancestry. In the lack of any accredited facts drawn from anything resembling a census, — and no attempt at such a process was made till after the middle of this century, — we have mainly to rely upon two helpful considerations for estimating the number of the aborigines at any given time on any particular locality. The first is, the effect of their constant warfare among themselves in reducing their number; and, second, the capacity of the soil, its woods and waters, for sustaining a more or less compact population by productive labor on tilled fields, or by the chase. Both these considerations would naturally lead us to infer that there was no such steady increase of population as commonly occurs in peaceful life in a civilized and industrious community. We are besides to take into view the fact, well authenticated, that plagues, contagious and epidemical diseases, were frequent and wide in their visitations, and occasionally effected a well-nigh complete extinction of one or more tribes devastated by them.
It is significant, that, in every case in which careful and patient research or inquiry have been brought into intelligent use in estimating the number of one or more Indian tribes, and of the whole Indian population, previous calculations, guessings, and inferences on the subject have been found to be exaggerations. The only associated groups of tribes with which our acquaintance and knowledge have been continuous from the beginning is the Iroquois, who have been in intimate intercourse with the Dutch, the French, and the English for more than two hundred and fifty years. Sir William Johnson, the best informed of all interested in their number, placed it in 1763 at 11,650. We
