r instinct
teaches them that they will find deserts of immeasurable extent. "The
buffalo is constantly receding," say Messrs. Clarke and Cass in their
Report of the year 1829; "a few years since they approached the base
of the Alleghany; and a few years hence they may even be rare upon the
immense plains which extend to the base of the Rocky Mountains." I have
been assured that this effect of the approach of the whites is often
felt at two hundred leagues' distance from their frontier. Their
influence is thus exerted over tribes whose name is unknown to them; and
who suffer the evils of usurpation long before they are acquainted with
the authors of their distress. *e

[Footnote d: "Five years ago," (says Volney in his "Tableau des
Etats-Unis," p. 370) "in going from Vincennes to Kaskaskia, a territory
which now forms part of the State of Illinois, but which at the time
I mention was completely wild (1797), you could not cross a prairie
without seeing herds of from four to five hundred buffaloes. There are
now none remaining; they swam across the Mississippi to escape from the
hunters, and more particularly from the bells of the American cows."]

[Footnote e: The truth of what I here advance may be easily proved by
consulting the tabular statement of Indian tribes inhabiting the United
States and their territories. (Legislative Documents, 20th Congress,
No. 117, pp. 90-105.) It is there shown that the tribes in the centre
of America are rapidly decreasing, although the Europeans are still at a
considerable distance from them.]

Bold adventurers soon penetrate into the country the Indians have
deserted, and when they have advanced about fifteen or twenty
leagues from the extreme frontiers of the whites, they begin to build
habitations for civilized beings in the midst of the wilderness. This
is done without difficulty, as the territory of a hunting-nation is
ill-defined; it is the common property of the tribe, and belongs to no
one in particular, so that individual interests are not concerned in the
protection of any part of it.

A few European families, settled in different situations at a
considerable distance from each other, soon drive away the wild animals
which remain between their places of abode. The Indians, who had
previously lived in a sort of abundance, then find it difficult to
subsist, and still more difficult to procure the articles of barter
which they stand in need of.

To drive away their game is t