Population and Statistics
The aboriginal population of America was over-rated from the beginning; and the same spirit of exaggeration which actuated the early discoverers, has continued to throw its influence over every period of our history. It is not probable that, at the opening of the sixteenth century, or any other period which may be selected, the number of souls upon the Indian territory, bore any very considerable ratio to the number of square miles of country which they occupied in the shape of villages, or hunting grounds. The hunter state requires, indeed, that immense districts of forest should be left in the … Read more