It is well known, that before Europeans got any footing in North America, the increase of population amongst the Indian nations was very slow, as it is at this day amongst those who remain still unconnected with the whites. Various reasons have been assigned for this. It has been asserted, in the first place, that the Indian is of a much cooler temperament than the white man, has less ardour in pursuit of the female, and is furnished with less noble organs of generation. This assertion is perhaps true in part: they are chaste to a proverb when they come to Philadelphia, or any other of the large towns, though they have a predilection in general for white women, and might there readily indulge their inclination; and there has never been an instance that I can recollect, of their offering violence to a female prisoner, though oftentimes they have carried off from the settlements very beautiful women; that, however, they should not have been gifted by the Creator with ample powers to propagate their species would be contrary to every thing we see either in the animal or the vegetable world; it seems to be with more justice that their slow increase is ascribed to the conduct of the women. The dreadful practice amongst them, of prostituting themselves at a very early age, cannot fail, I should imagine, to vitiate the humours, and must have a tendency to occasion sterility. Added to this, they suckle the few children they have for several years, during which time, at least amongst many of the tribes, they avoid all connection with their husbands; moreover, finding great inconveniency attendant upon a state of pregnancy, when they are following their husbands, in the hunting season, from one camp to another, they have been accused of making use of certain herbs, the specific virtues of which they are well acquainted with, in order to procure abortion.