In this respect we see the very privations of those Indian tribes forcing on their notice the resources of the copper region, which might, among so energetic a people as the Iroquois proved themselves to be, have at length led to such a mastery of the metallurgic arts as was achieved by the nations of Mexico and Peru. But their energies were diverted into far different channels by the very advent of races already familiar with all the highest acquirements of civilisation; and whatever time might have developed out of the Iroquois confederacy, akin to the native civilisation which had already taken root beyond the verge of their southern conquests, they had little to hope from the triumph of either of the European aggressors between whom they so long held the balance. In the rivalry of the French and English colonists the insular race proved the victors; and when at a later date England and her American colonies came into collision, the nations of the League took different sides, and the Hodenosaunee[[73]] finally ceased to be the ideal rallying-point of a united people. They had run their destined course; and now the poor scattered remnants of the once-famous Indian federation serve only to illustrate how irreconcilable are the elements of high civilisation with the most vigorous and progressive energy of a people only maturing the first stage in the progress of nations. They lacked the qualities which protect an inferior race from extinction when brought into contact with a long matured civilisation. Passive and naturally submissive races, like the Malay or the Negro, survive the intrusion of a dominant race, and are protected by their docility, as the natural serfs of the intruders. But an energetic people, who find their chief employment in war and the chase, can be subjected to no useful servitude. They are separated by too wide a gulf from their rivals to claim any equality in the rights of civilisation. The only alternative left for them is to drive out the intruder, or to be exterminated by him like the bear and wolf. Stone, Bronze, and Iron Periods are not indispensable steps in the advancement of the human race; but all experience proves that when such extreme social conditions are abruptly brought into contact as stone and iron periods aptly symbolise, the tendency is towards the degradation and final extinction of the less advanced race.
