inclinations prompted. Free from all the contaminations and pollutions which find their way into civilized and refined communities, they enjoyed a high degree of health and vigor, and were subject to few diseases. They were liable to the accidents of war and the chase; they sometimes suffered from hunger, and sometimes from surfeit; they were liable to scurvy and some inflammatory diseases, and sometimes fatal epidemics, of the character of which we have no certain knowledge, prevailed among them; but it is certain that some of the most loathsome, and many of the most fatal diseases which prevail among us, were unknown to them. As we found them they were a vigorous, powerful, athletic, people, capable of severe labor and long endurance. The Indian grasped the bow with the strength of a more than Roman arm, and launched the arrow to its mark with a force and precision which defied all competition. No pale face could roam the forest, ford the stream, or war with the bear like him.
These extraordinary physical powers were in some measure incident to them as a race every
