satisfactory assurances of this fact, peaceably received General Obando, who was appointed by the vice-president to quell the mutiny, if persisted in, and to take the command of the mutineers, if they submitted without resistance. There could be no doubt that the Bolivians would follow the example of the neighboring state, in renouncing the objectionable Code, placed as they were between Buenos Ayres and Peru, each extremely hostile to Bolivar; and it was reasonable to consider the defection of one as involving that of the other, as the event proved. Thus crumbled into ruin the labored fabric of Bolivar's towering ambition, reared at such irreparable sacrifice of fame and character, but wanting the necessary foundation of public opinion to support it, without which no government can permanently subsist in communities constituted like the South American republics. Bolivar was moved by these events from the ominous inactivity, wherein he had persevered so long, and instantly put himself in motion for the south, to assume the presidency, and punish the audacity' of the new Prætorians,' as he characterized the late Colombian auxiliaries of Peru; and to march, he said, against the traitors who, after having trodden under foot their holiest duties, had raised the standard of revolt to invade the most loyal departments' of the republic. Indeed, the whole proclamation, announcing his altered purpose, singularly betrays the conflicting emotions, which the circumstances were calculated to awaken in his bosom. His glorious reputation was tarnished by the attempt at usurpation, without gaining even the inferior lustre of success to compensate him for the loss. He had sold his fame to the tempter, for the acquisition of power, and was cheated of that for which he had paid a price far exceeding all estimation. Even his brave associates in a life of victory had learnt to denounce his name, and he was driven to muster an army to oppose them, his chosen companions in arms. It became necessary for him to dissemble or defer his designs upon Colombia, therefore, and act for a season as her constitutional chief magistrate, until he could arrange measures to recombine the scattered fragments of his arbitrary power. He made his public entry into the capital, September 10, 1827, and took the constitutional oath as president in the forms prescribed by law, signifying his personal desire to abide by the result of the grand convention, which, by the decree of the Congress, was ordered to meet at Ocaña in the ensuing spring. The submission of the Colombian troops in the south rendered his presence there unnecessary, and of course he entered upon the discharge of the executive duties at the seat of government. But nothing fell from his lips to encourage the republican party to expect anything at his hands; nor did he intimate a disposition to relinquish the purpose, imputed to him and never disclaimed, of forcing the Bolivian Code and the presidency for life upon Colombia. It is not our intention to continue the account of Bolivar's ⚫ life through the past year, in which the worst prediction of the constitutionalists have been fearfully realized, in the events consequent upon the dissolution of the convention of Ocaña. Bolivar, at the head of the government, as irresponsible military dictator, the constitution virtually abolished,—the assault on the government palace by armed men, bent on freeing the republic of her Cæsar in Roman fashion,-Padilla's execution, and the consignment of Santander to the fatal prison-house of Boca-Chica,-hostility between Peru and Colombia, heightened into open war by reciprocal wrongs, and by the personal feelings of Bolivar,-such are the successive incidents, which, in the year that has elapsed, have gathered and darkened around the individual character of the Liberator. They are contemporary history, which requires more extended examination than our space or time will now permit ; and here therefore we take leave of the subject. What is to be the result of the present state of things, time will show. We do not apprehend the establishment of a monarchy eo nomine. Mr Salazar discloses the curious fact, that a constitutional monarchy has been the subject of much debate in Colombia, although it has been confined principally to private discussions, and rarely mentioned by public writers. The name is too unpopular in South America to encourage its introduction. But recent events indicate, that the substance is regarded with no unfavorable eye; and among military men especially, we fear too many agree to the assertion of Don Tomas de Heres; 'La cuestion está reducida á esta muy sencilla alternativa, constitucion y ruina del Estado y de los hombres virtuosos, ó absolutismo y órden y paz.' Yet impartial observers cannot fail to inquire, whose machinations they were that contributed to reduce the question to the desperate alternative of anarchy or despotism. ART. III.-Documents and Proceedings relating to the Formation and Progress of a Board in the City of New York, for the Emigration, Preservation, and Improvement of the Aborigines of America. July 22, 1829. THE destiny of the Indians, who inhabit the cultivated portions of the territory of the United States, or who occupy positions immediately upon their borders, has long been a subject of deep solicitude to the American government and people. Time, while it adds to the embarrassments and distress of this part of our population, adds also to the interest which their condition excites, and to the difficulties attending a satisfactory solution of the question of their eventual disposal, which must soon pass sub judice. That the Indians have diminished, and are diminishing, is known to all who have directed their attention to the subject. For any purpose we have in view, it is not necessary to go back to the remote periods of aboriginal history, and investigate the extent of the population, and their means of subsistence, and to calculate the declension of the one, and the reduction of the other, as the white man advanced in his progress from the seat covered by a buffalo robe,* first given to him on the shore of the ocean, to the dominion he now enjoys. Such an inquiry would be vain and useless. The materials for any comparative estimate of Indian population at different periods, are scanty and unsatisfactory, collected without care, and combined without judgment. They are in fact but vague estimates, received and given in a spirit of exaggeration, and serving little more than to exhibit the probable relative strength of the various tribes. But although precision be unattainable, and, we may add, unimportant, yet the principal facts are indisputable. The Indians have gradually decreased since they became first known to the Europeans. The ratio of this diminution may have been greater or less, depending on the operation of causes we shall presently investigate; but there is no just reason to believe, that any of the tribes, within the whole extent of our boundary, has been increasing in numbers at any period since they have been known to us. This opinion is expressed by *The Indian tradition respecting the quantity of land first given to the white men. the Superintendents of Indian affairs, in the report submitted to Congress at its last session, by the war department; and from the favorable opportunities possessed by those officers, of acquiring correct information upon this subject, their opinion must carry with it considerable authority.* The whole amount of Indian population, within the United States, east of the Mississippi, is estimated in this report at 105,060, and is divided as follows. Within the states of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode The state of New York Pennsylvania North Carolina 2,573 4,820 300 3,100 It will be seen, that in the original states the primitive stock has been reduced to 16,093 individuals, and that three fourths of the number now surviving, in the whole of the vast country east of the river Mississippi, are found in the states of Alabama and Mississippi, and in the Territory of Michigan, where the pressure upon them is now beginning to be felt, and will bring with it the usual process of deduction. In the same report, the number of Indians west of the Mississippi is thus estimated, 20,000 Between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains 108,070 80,000 Making a general aggregate of 313,130, within the United *We are aware of the statements which have been made concerning the increase of population among the Cherokees, but we have seen no satisfactory evidence of it. States, extending over twenty-four degrees of latitude and fiftyeight degrees of longitude. And these are the remnants of the primitive people, who, only two centuries ago, possessed this vast country; who found in the sea, the lakes, the rivers, and forests, means of subsistence sufficient for their wants. It would be miserable affectation to regret the progress of civilization and improvement, the triumph of industry and art, by which these regions have been reclaimed, and over which freedom, religion, and science are extending their sway. But we may indulge the wish, that these blessings had been attained at a smaller sacrifice; that the aboriginal population had accommodated themselves to the inevitable change of their condition, produced by the access and progress of the new race of men, before whom the hunter and his game were destined to disappear. But such a wish is vain. A barbarous people, depending for subsistence upon the scanty and precarious supplies furnished by the chase, cannot live in contact with a civilized community. As the cultivated border approaches the haunts of the animals, which are valuable for food or furs, they recede and seek shelter in less accessible situations. The number of these animals may be diminished, but cannot be increased, by the interference of men; and when the people, whom they supply with the means of subsistence, have become sufficiently numerous to consume the excess annually added to the stock, it is evident, that the population must become stationary, or, resorting to the principal instead of the interest, must, like other prodigals, satisfy the wants of to-day at the expense of to-morrow. The general principles regulating the population of the human race are as applicable to wandering tribes, deriving their support from the bounties of nature, as to stationary and civilized societies, where art and industry can increase almost indefinitely those products which minister to their wants. Population and production must eventually preserve a just ratio to each other. Whether the tribes upon this continent had attained the maximum of their population, before the discovery, we have not now the means of ascertaining. It is certain, however, as well from a consideration of their mode of life, as from a careful examination of the earlier narratives, that, greatly as they exceeded their present numbers, they were yet thinly scattered over the country. There is no reason to believe, that vegetable productions were ever cultivated to any |