SW_GH1804_122

the circumstance of their never having submitted themselves to any laws, any coercive power, or any shadow of government. Their only con-straintstrasts are their manners, and that moral sense of right and wrong which, like the sense of tasting and feeling in every man, makes a part of his nature. An offence against these is punished by contempt, by exclusion from society, or, where the case is serious, as that of murder, by the in-dividuals whom it concerns. Imperfect as this spe-cies of coercion may seem, crimes are very rare amongst them, in so much that were it made a ques-tion whether no law, as among the native Ameri-cans, or too much law, as among the civilized Euro-peans, submits men to the greatest evil; one who has seen both conditions of existence would pro-nounce it to be the last, and that the sheep are happier of themselves, than under the care of wolves. It will be said that great societies can-not exist without the aid of government. The savages therefore break themselves into small ones. The territories of the Powhatan confede-racy south of the Potomac, comprehended about 8000 square miles, 30 tribes, and 2400 hundred warriors. Captain Smith tells us that within 60 miles of Jamestown were 5000 people, of whom 1500 were warriors. From this we find the proportion of their warriors to their whole inhabitants was as 3 to 10. The Powhatan confederacy then would cosist of about 8,000 inhabitants, which was one for every square