forethe Declaration of Independence, being an increase of two thousand. This is not a solitary instance; and especially among the hybrids of Canada, New York, the Indian Territory, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin, has there been a steady increase during the past thirty or forty years. Figures are given to show that the Sioux Confederacy have quadrupled in one hundred and forty years, and doubled, at least, in twenty-nine years. Remarkable increase is shown in other tribes, notwithstanding war, disease, and whisky. It is at the same time admitted that in some of the western regions, especially California, the unusual barbarity of the brutal white has told seriously on the Indian population there, though not to nearly so great an extent as vague estimates would make out.
Only within the past four years has there been any official report of the births and deaths among several tribes sufficiently general to be of value. These official returns relate to over one hundred thousand Indians, belonging to nearly one hundred tribes, and the excess of births over deaths was found to vary from six-tenths to 2ˑ32 per cent. Again, in former times only the strongest survived, weak children not being allowed to live, and old and diseased persons being often put out of the way. Only one of twins was allowed to survive, and generally the battle of life was only to the strong. Now, since the United States government protect and subsidize the Indians the latter are acute enough to see that it is to their interest to have as many mouths to feed and bodies to clothe as possible, and act accordingly.
Colonel Mallery then, from the data which he has collected, comes to the conclusion that when Columbus discovered America there were not more than five hundred thousand Indians to the north of Mexico, and that now, in the United States and Alaska alone, excluding Canada, there are something like three hundred thousand. If the Canadian Indians and hybrids were added to this it would probably turn out that the native population had not at least decreased. At all events it seems to us that Colonel Mallery has adduced strong reasons for hesitating to accept the "blight" and "withering" theory for the American Indians at least. That it does apply to other races with which the Anglo-Saxon at least has come into contact, there is only too good reason to believe. The last of the Tasmanians has gone, the years of the Sandwich Islanders are numbered, many other Pacific islands have been almost depopulated. As to Australia, we wish some one would do for it what Colonel Mallery has done for North America. We believe the results for South America, if the native population question were carefully examined, would show that there also the decrease has been greatly exaggerated. To make a sweeping generalization as to the inevitable disappearance of white before black is absurd; what would be the use of Africa to the world if this were so? As to the future of the American Indian, both Colonel Mallery and Professor Wilson speak hopefully. The process of breaking in the savage to civilized ways of life must be slow. It cannot be done per saltum. How long did it take the European conglomeration of tribes to settle down and reach their present stage of culture? In Canada many so-called Indians are really as settled and civilized as the English peasant, perhaps, on the whole, more so; and if the Indians in the States had as fair play as their Canadian brethren, the process would be much more rapid than it is. At all events, the theory of disappearance by extinction seems now a most improbable one, and that by absorption is proved to be actually occurring! Indeed, the old, old drama which has been acted in Europe from the time of the cavemen until even now is being continued on the other side of the Atlantic; and the result a century or two hence may be a race more mixed, perhaps, than any in the old world, but with the English type of character dominant, and by its very mixture better able to cope with the conditions which prevail on a continent so different in many respects from Eurasia. Professor Huxley has shown how absurd it is to talk of purity of race; there is no such thing probably anywhere in the world, least of all in Europe, in whose population there are lower strains than even that of the North American Indian. We may state that some of the most eminent scientific inquirers in the United States share Colonel Mallery's opinions as to the increase of the Indians.
Colonel Mallery disperses a few other delusions with regard to the North American Indian, most people's idea of whom is derived from Cooper's fictions. He shows how they got their name of "red men" — from the fact that they were in the constant habit of coloring their faces with the ochre found in the soil. Their real color is brown, with many shades. No more common notion exists with regard to the Indians than their belief in one "Great Spirit," under names like Manitou, Taku Wakau, etc. A better acquaintance
