n, and their senses, to guide them. They know that the
earth will not produce timber, while the surface is covered with a firm
grassy sward, and that timber will spring up, as soon as this
obstruction is removed.

To all these theories, of the former density of the aboriginal
population of the Valley, I oppose, first, the fact that but a scattered
and erratic population was found here, on the arrival of the
Europeans,--that the people were rude savages, subsisting chiefly by
hunting, and that no savage people ever became populous,--that from time
immemorial, the different tribes had been continually at war with each
other,--that but a few years before the French explored it, the
Iroquois, or Five nations, conquered all the country to the Mississippi,
which they could not have done had it been populous, and that Kentucky,
one of the finest portions of the Valley, was not inhabited by any
people, but the common hunting and fighting grounds of both the northern
and southern Indians, and hence called by them, _Kentuckee_, or the
"Bloody ground."[7]

That the Indian character has deteriorated, and the numbers of each
tribe greatly lessened by contact with Europeans and their descendants,
is not questioned; but many of the descriptions of the comforts and
happiness of savage life and manners, before their country was possessed
by the latter, are the exaggerated and glowing descriptions of poetic
fancy. Evidence enough can be had to show that they were degraded and
wretched, engaged in petty exterminating wars with each other, often
times in a state of starvation, and leading a roving, indolent and
miserable existence. Their government was anarchy.--Properly speaking,
civil government had never existed amongst them. They had no executive,
or judiciary power, and their legislation was the result of their
councils held by aged and experienced men. It had no stronger claim upon
the obedience of the people than advice.

In Mexico, civilization had made progress, and there were populous towns
and cities, and edifices for religious and other purposes. With the
exception of some very rude structures, the ruins of which yet remain,
and which upon too slight grounds, have been mistaken for military
works, nothing is left as marks of the enterprise of the feeble bands of
Indians of this Valley. Their implements, utensils, weapons of war, and
water-craft, were of the most rude and simple construction, and yet
prepared with great labor