caufe they are defcended from a degenerated race,, and become happy,,
the remote- offspring o f fuch tribes as are ftill poffeffed o f the remains
o f the original lyftem o f education, o f which little or nothing
paffed over with them into Tierra del Fuego.
Wherever we find nations-or tribes in nearer or more immediate
connexion, with thofe who had ftill the iyftem of ufeful ideas,,
perpetuated by education, we likewiie find the human fpecies, as,
it were, in more vigour,, and- better civilization- T h e ancient:
Mexicans and Peruvians feem to he defcended. from thofe nations,,
whom Kublaikhan fent to conquer Japan,, and who were dilperled.
by a dreadful ftorm,. and i t is probable' that fome. o f them were
thrown on the coaft o f America, and there formed thefe two great
empires. T h e Greenlanders and Eikimaux, in the very North of
America, camp later into that continent than any o f the other American
nations, (the Mexicans and. Peruvians, excepted,) for they are
reckoned to be a foreign tribe, and they appear to be o f a different
race o f men,, by the language, the drefs, the features, fize, form,
and habit o f body, and manners : probably they came from fome’
o f the numerous ifles, which form the connexion between America
and Afia. A ll thefe nations had better regulations and principles;
than their neighbours, and human nature feems with them to have
been in more vigour, than with the reft o f the American favage-
tribes i their later connexions^ with, and defcent from Afiatic nations.
Cions, accounts for the remaining ideas o f arts and principles o f fo- o r i g i n
cial life, and o f civilization; and likewife for the laws,, regulations e x ie s *
and form o f government introduced among them; but the Pefferau
are i-n a quite different condition: for being defcended from the
ftraggling American tribes,, who themfelves were much degenerated,
they could not derive from them any idea o f education, or
any principles o f foeial life, nor any regulations approaching to
thofe which are ufually to be met with, in. civilized nations.
W e may add to this, that their numbers are few,, and that
though their country be very little inferior in. fize to one moiety
o f Ireland, hardly 2000 inhabitants are found, on this great extent,
o f land...
In thefe fmall wild tribes, it is aknoft certain, that the ftill
fmaller focieties, whom navigators have occafionally found, were
nearly related to one another; which makes it probable, that they
■ only keep together becaufe they ftill find, feme benefit from their
union and mutual afliftance;; and this makes the Europeans, who
are ufed to civil fociety, believe, that the ties, o f friendfhip and.
blood ftill unite them; but it is quite otherwife, fo r it is not the
intereft of favages to form great bodies, in .conn tries that are not
rich in food and animal productions ; as. Coon as they think themfelves
ftrong enough to fet up a new family, they feparate and remove.
to parts unoccupied by other families*,, where they have a profpect
. of