CHAPTER XIX.

The antiquity of the Indians. Natives ignorant of it. Inferred from their languages. Use of comparative vocabularies. Instances of affinity. Evidences from_extent of population. From ignorance of useful arts. From Traditions and historical paintings. From ancient relics. From various resemblances. A race more ancient than that of the present Indians.

THE antiquity, not less than the origin, of the red men of America is an interesting subject of inquiry. Obscurity, however, rests on the period of time in which they began to exist as a distinct people, as well as on the country whence they had their origin. Nations favored with the advantages of the arts will be sure to leave some monuments which will successfully resist the wastes of ages; but the natives had no arts which could impart to fleeting time any permanent traces of events. As they reared no monuments, so they had nothing like letters, by which records and history could retard the rapid career of events hurrying down to oblivion.

None of the original natives has knowledge enough to tell his own story. It probably extends too high into antiquity for the reach of human investigation. Proofs, however, will accumulate at every step we take to evince, beyond the power of doubt, that the Indians are a most ancient race.

Their languages will prove this. Their number and variety were greater than could be found in both Europe and Asia. It will not readily be conceded, that a facility in making a language is in proportion to the ignorance of those who form it. Nothing requires a deeper logic, or more intense reflection than the formation of language. The most illustrious of the Cæsars in the plentitude of his power acknowledged, that he could not change a word, or give currency to a new one in the Roman tongue. Yet the natives in the lapse of ages did much more. Judging from those in the eastern states, and in Virginia, they must have had thousands. They spoke three original languages in Canada, two in New-England, three in Virginia, thirty-five in Mexico, fifty in Brazil,

and a proportional number in other parts of the continent Their dialects were much more numerous still, and were almost as many as their tribes. There languages were so original and different from each other as to require in their treaties the intervention of interpreters, even when nations had lived contiguous to each other for ages. Dialects and modes of pronunciation may easily be adopted, or changed; but to recede from all affinity to each other must be the work of time. For us to form a new language, having no analogy to our own, would prove no inconsiderable labor. The English, Dutch, Germans, Swiss, Norwegians, Danes and Swedes have been separate nations for ages; but, when twice as many more ages shall have rolled away, no doubt etymologies will be traced and derivations be as obvious as ever. A sa greater number of radical changes of language has taken place among the red men of America, the author of the notes on Virginia receives it as a proof of a higher antiquity than those in Asia. Of course, it will follow, that either the latter is indebted to the former for its primitive inhabitants, or a local creation applied them.

It is to be regretted, that greater care has not been taken to preserve vocabularies of Indian words in each language. Some of the tribes are almost every year becoming extinct, and all knowledge of their language must perish with those who spoke it. By comparing the names of the most familiar objects in nature with those of the languages on the eastern continent, it is obvious that we shall obtain one method of ascertaining, whether the inhabitants of the two worlds ever spoke the same radical language. Amidst our scanty means of information, this method would prove one of the most certain and satisfactory in discovering the affinity, the origin and the antiquity of all nations. The preservation and the increase of such vocabularia comparativa," in the collection of which some progress has already been made, would leave the literary men of future times and of both continents to pursue the subject at leisure, marshal the facts and arrive at the most important discoveries. Our zeal ought to be increased from the consideration, that the means and the possibility of effecting an object so desirable are every day diminishing.

The vocabularies, which have been obtained, offer many evidences not only of high antiquity but also of Asiatic descent. Nom is the name of God among the Poconchi tribe

of Indians; among the Semoyads in Asia it is changed to Nim. The Delaware Indians use the name of Kitchi, and the Kamptchadals in Asia say Kootcha. The Indians of Pennsylvania use the word anna and the Peruvians mama for mother, while in Asia the Tartars say ana and the Albanians mamma. The Delaware Indians in America say nachk for a hand, and the Akashini say nak. The Chilese name of blood is molbuen, in Asia the Koriaki call it moolyomool. The name of ice among the Chippewas in America is meequarme, while among the Kazees in Asia it is meek. Howover slight the affinities may appear between American and Asiatic languages, yet the radical affinities of the various Indian languages must be obvious to every observer. Ease of pronunciation may be sufficient to account for the adoption of certain words by nations who never had any communication with each other; such as the word, mama, which is so - easily and early emitted from infantile organs of speech. But however useful extensive Indian and Asiatic vocabularies may prove, yet the cautious genius of philosophy will not be ready to erect an entire system on a few analogies or obscure etymologies.

The extent of Indian population will also be a stronger evidence of high antiquity. The savages had spread over every part of the continent of America as well as over all the adjacent islands. During the 320 years the Europeans have been acquainted with their tribes, there has been no increase of their numbers. The hunter's state does not probably admit of a greater population. So far from any increase are they, that some whole tribes have become extinct, the rem nants of others are lost in a consolidation with other nations, while every one of them has actually diminished in number. It has been estimated, that the British colonies in America, which are remarkable for a rapid increase, have not doubled their numbers more than once in thirty years. The families of Indians, containing not more than half the members as those of the white people, would double in about sixty years. If America were peopled by one human pair, a population of one Indian to a square mile would require a period of nearly fourteen centuries. Such a period, considering the progress of the hunter's state and the commencement of civilized life, must have terminated some centuries before America was discovered by the Europeans. This estimate will

carry us back to several centuries prior to the birth of Christ.

The origin and antiquity of the Indian race may be traced to the far remote period, when the useful arts were unknown in the country whence they emigrated. The wants of mankind are so urgent, that they are not apt to forget what is indispensably necessary to subsistence and self defence. The use of iron is so connected with every thing we do, that all remembrance of it seems to be next to impossible. The loom, the forge and the plough, with many other arts necessary to life, when their value should be once known, would be identified with the consciousness of existence. The use of animals to aid the labors of man would be held in remembrance as long as the necessity of industry should be found to continue. But the original natives had neither these arts, nor any recollections of them. Such a want of knowledge will give a date to their origin near the period of the first human pair.

The traditions of the natives themselves show, that they are of no modern date. They retain some ideas of what took place before the general deluge; but are strangers to later events which have distinguished the European continent. The Mexicans have direct traditions concerning the confusion of tongues at Babel, and declare that their ancestors came from Asia since that memorable event; and they have preserved the same tradition in their historical pictures. Had they the means of learning the events which followed the flood, it is not probable that they would have been well acquainted with those only which were before it. A conclusion therefore has been made, that the natives of America are entitled to a rank in antiquity, which shall place them among the descendants of Noah.

The relics of the Aborigines will support the supposition of a very ancient date. Whatever was made of wood and other perishable materials has long since reverted to the common character of earth. Their cities and fortified places scarcely leave vestiges of their position. Trees of successive growth now shoot up their aged trunks and venerable branches over places which were once the favorite resorts of the ancient inhabitants. Their vessels of pottery are dug up many feet below the surface of ground where they seem to have rested for ages. Their instruments are found identified with ore, which seemed to be cœval with time itself. All

these things could not be the works of yesterday: and the inhabitants of the western hemisphere almost seem to have been the owners of another surface of earth.

There are many other things which not only evince the antiquity, but also may be thought to indicate the origin of the Indian tribes. From the circumstances of their anointing their heads, paying a price for their wives, observing the feast of harvest, offering up sacrifices, making grievous mourning for the dead, and many other striking points of resemblance between the Israelites and the Indians, the latter have been considered as the descendants of Abraham. The ancient Scythians were in the practice of scalping their enemies, whom the fortune of war put in their power; and from the savages of America indulging the same practice, it was at once inferred, that they were of the same extraction. The Kamschatkans and Indians, when marching to battle, go in the order of single file; and this was enough in the minds of some to decide that both people were of the same ancestral stock. The birchen canoes of the Canadians bore a resemblance of those of the Tungusi in the north of Asia, and it was easy from this to determine, that the former were a colony proceeding from the latter. It was no sooner discovered, that the Mexicans and Peruvians used to give perpetuity to the most memorable events by hieroglyphic representations, than it was declared, that those Aborigines were the descendants of the ancient Egyptians. Others perceived the certainty of an Asiatic descent in the redness of the complexion, the straightness of the hair, the want of a beard, the manner of sitting on the ground, the treatment of children, the popular mythology of the countries, notions of a God, opinions of a future state, and ceremonies of worship. From such trivial coincidences as these, entire systems have arisen. The course, which the cautious spirit of philosophy will pursue, is, to collect as many interesting facts as possible; and the hypothesis, which none of those facts will contradict, may be adopted with the pleasing hope of approximating to the truth.

Whatever evidences we can summon concerning this subject, they will be in favor of the antiquity of the Indian race. The authority of revelation will, in the minds of christians, decide on the prior settlement of the eastern continent. Aside of an authority more than human, the strength of probabilities would affect the minds of men very differently. The