served among the Chiquitians, and. their customs were
more barbarous. A Moxos would sacrifice his wife if she'
miscarried, through superstition, and his* children if they
were twins, while the mother often got rid of her children
if they were troublesome to her; Marriage was a convention
that might be dissolved at the wish of the parties, and poly^
gamy was of ordinary occurrence. Being habitually in their
canoes, -they explored the streams, which they were ever
traversing;, whether for hunting; or fishing;, or going to orMrom
their habitations. They were all, more or less, warriors, but
tradition has only preserved the name of. one cannibal tribe
who ate their prisoners : these were the Canichana, who
to this day are a terror to the other tribes. The manners-Mf
this nation have been modified by the discipline of the missions,
but they retain many of their original customs.
With each of these two principal nations, the -Chiquitos
and the Moxos, M. d’OrbignyJias associated seWeral tAe#
of inferior note, who resemble them respectively in habits
and physical characters, but speak different languages, which
may perhaps hereafter be discovered to be merely dialects of
the two principal idioms. Thus, with the Chiquitians he has
classed the Samucus, who amount in number ta 2250'«souls-,
while the Chiquitians are 14,925, and the whole class of-
tribes referred to this department, including ten other nations>
are only 19,235. Of these the whole - number except 1500
have been converted or reduced under the missions^ The
Moxos are reckoned at 13,620. The Itonamas> Cayuvavas,
who are joined to them and next in numbers, are not '4000,
and the eight nations of this mission are altogether 27,247
persons. They are small people, their stature varying from
five feet two inches to five feet four inches. It is said that
these nations in their complexion are fairer than the Guarani.*
* D’Oibigny, vol. ii-.
CHAPTER XIII.
CONCLUDING OBSERVATION'S* ‘O ^ TH E HISTORY, PHYSICAL
. CH ARAC T ERS , AND PSYCHOLOGY OF TH E NATIVE RACES
j;^|OF AMEMPA,
I n . the preceding chapters of this hook X have1 endeavoured
to sketch a brief outline^ of the history, physical description,
and psychologyx>f the^feeveraV .races'!-of pedple who formed at
theera ofrits discovery the population of thé American continent.
' B shall now make some^-lgèneral remarksisêa; the
bearihgSiof these. fo.cts on-theriiistbry tOf mankind.
The following inferences -appear tonêéult from the survey
Itf the American nations^ \
1. That allpthe different races, aboriginal in the American
continent, or constituting its'e&rliesiknown population, belongs
including the Esquimaux, aS for as their history and lan-
guages'haveiheen investigated, to1 one1 family of pationss>-i.
■2. That these races display considerable diversiiièsriu their
physical constitution, though, if we mayqffaee reliance on the
preceding observation, derived from nnc?original stock, and
still betraying indications of mutual resemblaae©.
3. That there is nothing in the physical structure of these
races tending to prove an original diversity from the rest of
mankind.
4. There is nothing in their psychology's©-- different from
other nations as to give any reason for supposing them a
different species. '
I shall add a few remarks on each of these heads, which
will be little more than recapitulations and references to the
facts from which they are collected.
1. The proofs of original connection between the different
nations of America have been fully stated in the first chapter