Thus the inhabitants of the western continent are tit ter strangers to some of the most refined enjoyments which man can experience : enjoyments which arise from the union of the sees, regulated by temperance, and supported by equality. And women, destined by the Creator of the human race, to be our assistants in prosperity, and our comforters in distress, are sunk in 1inericu to the condition of slaves, timid and trembling in the presence of their lordly masters, the drudges of their will, and almost excluded from their society.
Among the. savages of the New World, the chief ob ject of attention is war. Every part of their education has an immediate reference to this; and their minds are constantly occupied in forming schemes to surprise or annoy their enemies. While the young men of a tribe pursue the wild animals, on which they depend for sub sistence, it is one great concern among them, to show, by their dexterity, boldness, and perseverance, that they are qualified to be enrolled among the warriors of their tribe, and to avenge the wrongs of their country. Every thing which they see and hear is fitted to inspire them with a love of military fame. To this passion for war, which is universal among the rude natives of the west ( rn continent, their indifference towards their females has been ascribed; but, in all probability, the cause of that indifference lies deeper in their constitution. if the American savages had not been destitute, in a good measure, of that ardour for the opposite sex, which the youth of other nations experience, the passion for war would not hat e taken the exclusive possession of their minds. The love of military fame is the effect, rather than the cause, of the coldness with which they regard their lemales; and that coldness must ultimately be as cribed to a peculiarity in their constitution, aided and ( on firmed by some powerful circumstances in their mode of life. Accordingly, the success of the Spa niards, in many of their expeditions, as in that of Cortez to the Mexican capital, depended chiefly on their fa vour with the women ; a favour which was to be ascribed, more to the keen passions and vigour of the Europeans, than to any art or contrivance by which it was pro It is owing to the depressed state of the females in the New World, combined in many places with an ex treme scarcity of provisions, that they bear fewer chil dren than those in the ancient continent. That exer sjse, which, if it were moderate, would give health to the constitution, and vigour to its efforts, overpowers among them the principle of action, because it is pro longed into toil, and because that toil is,incessant. Their bodily vigour is impaired by the labours to which they are subjected. In less favourable climates, where sub sistence is not easily procured, the mother cannot at tempt to rear a second child, till the first is able to pro vide for itself. Accordingly, it is related by Herera, that the Indian women suckle their children for many years; even when they are considerably advanced in childhood, the milk of the mother is still a part of their food; and it is a law of the female economy, that a WO man does not again become pregnant till the period of nursing is at an end. In some of the more barbarous
tribes, it is a maxim not to rear above two children; and when twins are born, one of them is exposed and forsaken. if a mother dies while she is nursing a child, it is buried in the same grave with its parent. Large families, such as exist in the polished societies of Eu rope or of Asia, arc not to be found among the rude inhabitants of the western hemisphere. And when, by indolence, and the want of foresight natural to sa ..ages, the difficulty r,f supporting even their less nu merous offspring is very great, affection towards their children yields to the imperious demands of hunger, and they abandon them, or put them to death. (Vene ga, //is/. of' CutifiJrniu, i. 8.t.) The voice of nature is stilled, and the emotions of parental fondness are re pressed, by the hardships of their situation. But in more auspicious climates, where food is abundant, the affection of the American Indians towards their progeny, while young and helpless, is as warm and as active as among any other people. This affection, however, is confined to the period of infancy : as the children advance in years, their parents cease to regard them as the objects of their care ; their wants are few, and the means of supplying them are generally within their reach; they are soon able to provide for them selves; and they learn, by the example ol those among them, who are eminent for their skill in war or in hunt ing, rather than by parental instruction, all that is neces sary to fit them for the duties of their simple life. AVhen they arrive at maturity, they are left entirely to their own• direction, in the Mil enjoyn..ent of liberty. They are seldom instructed or advised ; and chiding and chastisement arc altogether unknown. A young Carib having struck his lather, who had disobliged him, the latter testified no displeasure on account of the blow ; and a Spaniard having remonstrated with him, and urged him to punish the insolence of his son, the Indian addressed him in the following words: "Do you believe, my friend, that our children are in the same circumstances with yours ? It is not so: if I should punish my son for the injury which I have now received, he would kill me as soon as he is grown." (Gumilla, ii. 213.) In an American hut, there is neither govern ment, nor order, not union: the children do not obey their parents, and the parents are, for the most part, indifferent about their children. The members of a family in the New World seem as if they had been accidently brought together; no common interest ap pears to cement their association, and no affection towards each other, to fill their bosoms or to regulate their conduct. The wife is the slave of the husband, and he detains her near him, because her service is ne cessary for his support; and the children attach them selves to their parents, because they find the hut in which they live already built, to afford them a shelter from the weather.