IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

,<i^

•i<

1.0

I.I

11.25

1^1^ m
I ;^ Ilia

% ^ IIIIIM

JA ill 1.6

'<^

^s^

*>
^

'^ !.>*'

CIHM/ICMH
Microfiche

CIHM/ICMH
Collection de
microfiches.

Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut canadien de microreproductions historiques

1980

Technical Notes / Notes techniques

The Institute has attempted to obtain the best
original copy available for filming. Physical
features of this copy which may alter any of the
images in the reproduction are checked below.

fvf

D
D

Coloured covers/
Couvertures de co jleur

Coloured maps/

Cartes gdographiques en couleur

Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/
Pages ddcolor^es, tachetdes ou piqudes

Tight binding (may cause shadows or
distortion along interior margin)/
Reliure serr^ (peut causer de I'ombre ou
de la distortion le long de la marge
intdrieure)

L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire
qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Certains
d^fauts susceptibles de nuire A la quality de la
reproduction sont notis ci-dessous.

D
D

Coloured pages/
Pages de couleur

Coloured plates/
Planches en couleur

Show through/
Transparence

Pages damaged/
Pages endommagdes

P<
ol

Tl
c<

Tl
fil
in

M
in

uj
b(
fo

Additional comments/
Commentaires suppldmentaires

Bibliographic Notes / Notes bibliographiques

n
□

Only edition available/
Seule Edition disponible

Bound with other material/
Reiid avec d'autres documents

Cover title missing/

Le titre de couverture manque

D
D
D

Pagination incorrect/
Erreurs de pagination

Pages missing/
Des pages manquent

Maps missing/

Des cartes g^ographiques manquent

Plates missing/

Des planches manquent

Additional comments/
Commentaires suppldmentaires

ins
la

The images appearing here are the best quality
possible considering the condition and legibility
of the original copy and in keeping with the
filming contract specifications.

The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall
contain the symbol —►(meaning CONTINUED"),
or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever
applies.

Les images suivantes ont it6 reproduites avec le
plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et
de la nettet6 de I'exemplaire filmi, et en
conformity avec les conditions du contrat de
filmage.

Un des symboles suivants apparaltra sur la der-
nidre image de chaqun microifiche, selon le cas:
le symbole — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole
V signifie "FIN".

The original copy was borrowed from, and
filmed with, the kind consent of the following
institution:

National Library of Canada

L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grSce d la
g6n6rosit6 de I'dtablissement prdteur
suivant :

Bibliothdque nationale du Canada

Maps or plates too large to be entirely included
in one exposure are filmed beginning in the
upper l«ft hand corr.er, left to right and top to
bottom, as many frames as required. The
following diagrams illustrate the method:

Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre
reproduites en un seul clich6 sont filmdes d
partir de Tangle sup6rieure gauche, de gauche d
droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre
d'images necessaire. Le diagramme suivant
illustre la mdthode :

1 2 3

TORONTO PUBLiu mmt

bz.

'-1

THE

ANTIQUITY OF MAN

AMERICA,

A PAPER READ BEFORE THE NOVA SCOTIAN INSTITUTE OF

NATURAL SCIENCE, ON THE EVENINDS OF THE 8th

FEBRUARY, AND 8th MARCH, 18C9.

By WILLIAM GOSSIP,

Eovly. Secretary of the InstittUe.

HALIFAX, N. S.
PRINTED BY JAMES BOWES & SONS, BEDFORD ROW

1869.

U-.

I* '

^am

inL

^. <, rf . /*i--^j, ^ Cy .(.- CC <, ^ ., ^

■/ry

THE

ANTIQUITY OF MAN

AMERICA,

A PAPER READ BEFORE THE NOVA SCOTIAN LVSTITUTE OF

NATURAL SCIENCE, ON THF EVENINGS OF THE 8tii

FEBRUARY, AND 8th MARCH, 180!). .

By WILLIAM GOSSIP,

Eon'y. Secretary of the JtisiHutc,

HALIFAX, N. S.
PRINTP]D BY JAMES BOWES & SONS, BEDFOED ROW.

1869.

at
ai
is

P<
ri

it!

ol
of
A
th
ra
in

pi
G
ni
A>

of
sii
ot
re

as
ki

ci
n(
m

Fl
A

PREFACE.

The accompanying Paper on the Antiquity of Man in America, is an
attempt to show, with more certainty than the author is aware has yet been
arrived at, the probable advent of the human family to this Continent. This
is an ethnological question of great interest, but derives its importance more
perhaps from the speculations on the origin of mankind to which it has given
rise, at variance with the Scripture history, than from any beneficial result
its settlement can have upon the destinies of a race gradually passing away
under the intluences of modern civilization. The author considers that he
has conducted the enquiry within the limits of the knowhdge which has been
communicated tons by the sacred writers, of the events that took place in the
early history of mankind : and subject to the facts of these events, of their
impression upon the minds of the survivors of the great diluvian catastrophe
which destroyed a corrupt race. In addition to the argument, he also sub-
mits the following considerations : —

The antediluvian genealogy would appear to be confined strictly to the
oldest sons in all the families from Adam to the Flood. Neither the numbers
of the others are mentioned, nor the regions which they inhabited. But from
Adam to Noah in the order of descent, the record describes the increase of
the main branch, as afterwards it does from Terah to Jacob. This formed a
race of mankind within a known and limited area, and having constant
intercommunication. Whatever might be the extent of country they occu-
pied, or wherever it might be, they were one people, as much as Sodom,
Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim and Belah, were in the time of Abraham. They
may or may not have been contiguous to the Cainites on the east of Eden.
We know nothing particularly of that family after Tubal-Cain, unless some
of them are included in the designation of " the daughters of men." A
similarity of names would seem to imply that they amalgamated with the
other descendants of Adam, — but they may have separated and reached
remote portions of the earth with others of that race, far from the central
stock, and unknown to them. In 1600 years, unless these antediluvians were
as far advanced in art and science as is the present habitable earth, the
knowledge that there existed remote peoples and tribes would iiave been entire-
ly lost, as it was to the c escendants of Noah, who afterwards became great and
civilized nations in the common centre in Asia. The Scripture Genesis takes
no account of any such wanderings, and therefore must refer entirely to the
main branch; indeed it is shown by several indications, that altlioiigh the
Flood of Noah drowned a race corrupt in the extreme, which an inspired
Apostle calls " the world of the ungodly," it yet must have been a catastrophe

limited to that people. Neither geological science, nor what we know of the
present or past condition of the earth, will permit of any other conclusion.

We may conjecture, that five thousand years ago, the earth was more
subject to convulsions than it is now; and that the phenomena of the flood
might have been induced by the operation of natural causes, progressively
indicated a long time previous, like the gradual sinking of the Pacific Islands,
but quite unheeded by those who were at last destroyed. \Ve may assume
all this now and much more, without disbelieving the narrative, or the Divine
agency connected with it ; and it is a remarkable peculiarity of Biblical truth,
that it conforms to every degree of intellectual advancement and true scientific
knowledge. To Noah and his sons without doubt it was a palpable fact, that
the whole human race was destroyed, except themselves ; .\nd as they saw
nothing but an immensity of waters, "that all the high hills that were under
the whole heaven m'vtq covered," which could not have been known by personal
observ.atlon, and could therefore only r^fer to what they knew and what they
saw. Their descendants would have carried the account of such a deluge,
wherever they travelled, and were certainly engaged in providing against the
calamity of its recurrence when they had all gathered on the plain of Shinar,
and at the dispersion it accompanied them whithersoever they went.

On this topic, an eminent author, Dr William Smith, Classical p]xaminer
of the University of London, in his " Student's Scripture History," acknow-
ledging that "the literal truth of the narrative obliges us to believe that
the whole human race, except eight persons perished by the waters of the
Flood," speaks as follows: "The language of the Book of Genesis does not
compel us to suppose that the whole surface of the globe was actually covered
with water — if the evidence of Geology requires us to adopt the theory of a
partial deluge. It is natural to suppose that the writer, when he speaks of
"all flesh," "all in whose nostrils was the breath of life," refers only to his
own locality. This sort of language is common enough in the Bible when
only a small part of the globe is intended. Thus for instance it is said that
" all countries c&mc into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn ;" and that all the world
should be taxed." In these and many similar passages, the expressions of
the writer are obviously not to be taken in an exactly literal sense. Even the
apparently very distinct phrase — " all the high hills that were under the rvhole
heaven were covered," may be matched by another precisely similar, where it
is said that God would put the fear and dread of Israel upon every nation

under heaven.

W. G.

THE

ANTIQllTY OF iMAN IN AMKRICA.

TllK l*K()PLI\(; OF AMKinCA.

T[[f: Continont of Aincric;! is an inmicnso area r'iii;i'lni>: from
lat. S2^' \. to lat. T)!;^' S. and from lonir. H')'" to loni,^ KIS"^ \V.
It is l)otiii(k'(l N. by the Arctic Ocean, K. I)y the .Athintic Ocean,
W. I)v the Pacific Ocean, and S. I>y the Southern Ocean, so
<'alled. Althon;i;h desiufnatcd a Continent froni its vast extension
on all sides, it is nevertheless surrounded by water, the niufliest
land l)ein<>' the north eastern extreniitv of Asia, from which it is
separated by the Strei^hts of liehrinir, lat. (!()*^ X., in some |)Iaces
only 'JC) miles broad. South of l>ehrini>*s Streiijfhts, in lat. I")""' N.
are the Aleutian Isl mds, stretchim; from the Peninsula of Alaska
nearly to the Asian Continent, lat. i)2^ f)'i\' N. — one thousand
miles. These, the Asian shore of the Streii;hts of IJehrin^, and the
Aleutian Islands, arc the nearest lands west and north on the ]\icific
side to the American C^ontinent. East and North, separated from
America by HafHn's Bay and Davis' Strei^hts is (ireenland, ran^dnii'
from lat. oi)^ 4i>' to Hl"^ 29' X., with a much ijreater unknown
northern extensi(m ; and from lonfr. 20*^ to 7')" W., which ai^ain is
a short distance west from Iceland, easy of reach from the (Conti-
nent of Euroi)e. It must be evident therefore, that had the science
of na\ it!:ation been as well known to the ancient world as it is to
the modern, in either ecmtinent, there could be no physical rejison
why America shoidd not have been systematically peopled from
Europe or Asia by these routes, if all others were impracticable,
or why there miji^ht not have been an interconununication between

6 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

them. Or, i<!fn()i'in<>' such idciis, wliy accident from imperfect navi-
gation may not have cast human beings on the northern or other
coasts of America, on both sides, who became the pro<2;enitors of
the American Indians.

AVc are not, however, warranted by facts, in ascribing the })eo-
pling of America to either of tliese conjectural causes ; ahhough
shadowy traditions have always been extant in the eastern hemis-
phere of lands beyond the flood, which it was im})ossible to reach,
inhabited by rich and civilized conununities. These may have had
reference to inter-connnunication with ^Vmerica in the long past ;
or they may have been amplified fictions of the imagination. There
is nothing tangible in these floating traditions or myths ; and all
real knowledge of a western continent had lony; been lost.

jVIodern research, however, has sufficiently proved, that early in
the tenth century, before Columbus landed in .Vmcrica, the North-
men sailing west from Iceland discovered Greenland and planted
Colonies ; and from thence, still continuing west, came upon the
coast of America, landed, wintered and formed a settlement.* It is
conjectured that they may have touched at Labrador, or the Island
of Newfoundland, skirted Nova Scotia, and proceeded farther south
than New England. If they did so history is as oblivious of the
results of their voyages as of those of earlier periods. They left
no reliable record of their presence in a country much better than
their own, which once found they ought never to have lost
sight of. Little however could have been expected from the
Icelandic navigators. The difficulties and hardships attendant
upon the colonization of new countries, inhabited by hostile races,
are well known even in modern times, and with all the ajjpliances
of civilization. They may have been so great then as to discou-
rage the adventurers, and may plead an excuse for neglecting the
discovery. Although believing that they did Land upon this con-
tinent we are compelled to affirm that it proved valueless, alike to
themselves and the imperfect civilization of their times ; and that
there is no reason whatever to suppose that they contributed a tribe
to America, or influenced the lives of its i)eoj)le.

But, in whatever way the western continent may have been

* It continued to be known to them until the 12th Century. — l^b. Roy. Soc.
iV. Antiqns, Copen.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

feet navi-

or otlier

;nitors of

the peo-
although
•11 heniis-
to reach,
have liad
n<,^ past;
I. There
; and all

,t early in
lie North-
il planted
upon the
It.* It is
he Island
;hcr south
us of the
They left
3tter than
have lost
from the
attendant
tile races,
[ipplianees
to discou-
2cting the
this con-
, alike to
; and that
ted a trihe

have been
I. Jioy. Soc,

oriji^inally peopled, it is an indisputable fact, that from extreme
north to farthest south, and throui>hout its entire breadth, it was
inhabited lonf^ a<!:es prior to the discovery of Columlnis by numer-
ous tribes of men, whose normal condition indicated that their
advent must have been subsequent to the orijj^in of the race in Asia,
and a<>es anterior the period when an ancient civilization prevailed
in the earliest of the eastern empires of wliich we have authentic
record.

OriMOXS OF IMIILOSOPIIEIIS AM) TJJAVELLKUS.

The attention of philoso[)hcrs has long been directed to the pro-
blem Avhich this wide peo[)linf!: of the western hemisphere, so com-
pletely isolated from the eastern continent, has placed before them.
The solution is not easy. It leads the ethnolooist throu^-h the whole
ranj>e of human proi^ress and capacity back to the creation of
man, and still it seems impossible to arrive at a definite conclu-
sion. Probal)ility and }»ossibility — hypothesis and theory — are
all that have yet been evolved from the investiijfation. Some of
these are the speculations of infidels, others are frroy.sly absurd, and
almost all lack a large portion of the element of common sense. —
It may not be amiss to refer to a few of them, collected froui vari-
ous sources and bearing upon the pre-Noachite antiquity of man in
America. A variety of material is ready at hand for this purpose
from the Smithsonian Papers, and other sources. —

1. Paracelsus suggested, and Lord Kaimes and others have
argued ui)on general philosophical j)rinciples, that the races of men
and animals were severally created in the regions which they
inhabited.

2. Among authors who assume that America was peopled
before the Noachian Deluge, liurnett, in a Theory of the Earth,
pul)lished in London 1()84, states the belief held by some, " that the
earth, before the flood, was one mass of land, and when this was
broken at the Deluge, Providence made provision to save a rem-
nant of people in every country, although we ha\e accounts of what
ha])pencd in (me continent only. It has been argued, from
differences in the animal kingdom, many of whose s])ecies would
not survive transportation, that they must have been originally bred
where they are found ; and it has been maintained that, according to

f ;rrr

1/ ',

» THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMEHICA.

tlie prevailing traditions of antiquity, Paradise was w'tliout the
eastern continent, and beyond tlie ocean/'

3. Dr. Morton, an eminent physic »looi,st and able writer, in
his work " Kncpiiry into the distinctive chara(;teristics of the abori-
ginal race of AniCrica,'' says "that the study o^ plnftiicnl conforma-
tion alone, excludes everv branch of the Caucasian race from anv
obvious participation in the [)eo|)Iin^' of this continent ;" and again
— "■ that the organic characters of the people themselves, through all
the endless ramifications of tribes and nations, prove them to belong
to one and the same race, and that this race is distinct from all
<»thers."

In one of his papers he ob:3erves, '' T regard the American
nations as the true aufoc/ifho)U'/^ — the })rim<'v;d inhabitants of this
vast continent, and when I s[)ca!v of their being of one race and of
one origin, F allude only to their indifjctious relation to each other,
as sh )wn in all those attributes of mind and body Avliich have been so
amply illustrated by modern ethnography."

4. jNfcssrs. Nott and ( Jliddon, in a book entitled " 1 ypes of Man-
kind," j)ublished in 1^<")4, illustrated by selections from the unedited
j)apers of Dr. Morton, and contrioutions from l*r(»f. L. Agassiz and
others, urge the following among other pro})Ositions : —

"• There exists no data by whicii we can approximate the date of
man's first appearance upon eartii ; ami for aught wc yet know it
mav be thousands of millions of vears beyond our I'cach.

" The human fossil remain^ of Brazil and Florida, carry back
the original population of this continent far beyond the necessity of
huntiu"' for American man's foreiiiii oriiiiu thronu'li Asiatic emi-
gration.

" There are natural relations between the diiFerent types of man,
and the animals and plants inhabiting the same regions.

"• ^jot a single animal, bird, ivptile, fish, or plant, was common
to the Old and ^«ew World."

5. Caj)t. liernard Uomaus, vho in 1771-2, travelled through
the (•arolinas, (ieorgia, K. and W. Florida, and as far west Jia
the ^lississippi river, says very little about ancient remains, but
otters some decided views respecting the aborigines, and ex[)resses his
belief, that " from one end t)f Ameiica to the other, the red ])eople
are the same nation, and draw their origin from a ditt'erent source

)ut the

iter, in
e ubori-
}forma-
1)111 any
d aj^ain
Diiu'li all
) belonj^
IVoni all

merioan
s of this
and of
ih other,
' been so

of Man-
unedited
ijjsiz and

date of
know it

•ry back
Kssity of
itic eini-

of man,

eonnnon

through

west as

iiiiis, but

resses his

I j)eople

it source

TIIR ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMKHICA. 9

than cither Europeans, Cniincse, Xegroes, Moors, or any other
different speeios of the human j:!;enus." He further says, "I am
Hrmlv of opinion that (rod created an oriijinal man and woman in
this part of tlie globe of a difi'erent species from any in other
parts." ]). H<S.

(i. Samuel F. Ilavcu, in his " Archa'ology of the Fnited
States" [)ub]ished by the Smithsonian Institution, IS,'))!, and with
reference to Xott and (rliddon's " Tyjjes of ^lan," alrea<ly noticed,
l)ut without giving an o|)inion, says : — " If wc may jii(lg(> from the
tendency of recent publications, wc must be [ircpared for the rc-ad-
\ancement of an ancient tlieory, now based uj)on geological j)heno-
mena, tlie structure of native <lialects, and other scientific data,
Avhicli would give the Xew World precedence of the Old one, as soon-
er prepared for the occui)ancy of linman and brute creation, and as
actually inhabited at a more remote period."

7. Beari!ig upon this \ icw of the subject, Mr. W. Ilalibui'ton, a
member of our own Institute, in an able [)aper, "• On the Festival
of tlie Dead,"' jtrinted in the first \o. of our Transactions, adduces
a vtu'icty of faet>< connected with that celebi-ation in November,
and that of the primitive year as regulated by the Pl(Madcs, which
so far arc conlirmatory of the unity of the race. He considers it
j)laiidy manifest, that from Australia to Britain, Ave have all inheri-
ted these celebrations from a common source. Tie then a>ks a
({uestion — "• )\'as it carried south by northern nations ; ov, has there
been a miirration of s(tuthern races to northern latitudes?" Ilebeirs
the answi'r when further on he says : — '■'■ It is not gratifying it is true,
for civilized and refined nations to trace their origin to tlu^ saAages
of the Pacific Islands; yet those persons Avho may dislike the con-
clusions to which this ciKpilry tends, may if tlicv agree in the cor-
rectness of my views, console themselves by rtMiiembcriug the
monuments of an extinct ciAilization that are still to be f »und in
those Islands, and that \\\\\<\ have been the work of races far sujjc-
rior to the |)rcseiit races of Polynesia." *" He quotes Prof. ^lax
Miillci-'s o])inion derived from a suj)posed similarity of structure
of the Polynesian and Indo-Furoj)ean languages — as confirmatory
of the ccmchisions to Avhicli ethnology had led him — to Avit :

* Rc'ft'rriii.u: to tlic sinfjiilur ri'inniiis in f 'visiter Isihuids, that liave attracted
so niiu'li attention. — Ellis Pol. /'cs. viii, 32^.

T»^

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

" that t^traiif^o as it may sound to licar the lan<i^im<;e of Homer and
Ennins !>[)()keti of as an off^lioot of the Sandwicli It^laniLs, mere
ridicule W()ul<l be a very inappropriate and very inefficient answer
to such a theory,^ and that "there are other tlicories not lese
startllni; tlian tliat wliich would makt the Polvncfiian lan<;ua£>e the
primitive lan<^utt<i,e of mankind. "'

8. Colonel Galindo, late Governor of the Province of Peten,
in Central America, in a paper on the ruins of Copan, connnuni-
catcd to the Hun. Thomas Winthrop, President ot the American
Antiijuarian Society, lloston, dated at Copan, ffune 1!), 1835,
says: '"The Indian human race of America I nmst assert to be
the most ancient on the globe. However the white race, led by
a foolish vanity, may assume to l)e the progenitor (►f the human
family, it is probable that at a \('ry recent epoch it has issued from
the regions of the Caucasus, inundating Euro[)e, extending itself
over America, and with the energy of its youth and talent now
invading Asia and Africa. The Indian race, on the contrary,
has arri\ed at a decrepid old age ; it has passed through the stages
of youth, manhood and even dccav." * * * jj^,

deems the Indian race predecesscn* in civilization of the Clunese,
and even more than they in an old age incapable of regeneration,
and goes on thus: "To the primeval civilization of America we
nmst assign a great and indefinite ajiti(piity ; of course no palpable
remains or monuments of that epoch now exist. Its desti'uction
may bo ascribed to some convulsion of the earth, to plague, to
famine, to an invasion of l)arbarians, or perhaps to an insurrection
of slaves ; the colonics or renmants of these anciently enlightened
])eo[>le, p((s.sin(/ to the easf.eriv co^.v^v oj' Asia, commenced the
ciollization of Japan and China.^^

It may not be out of place here to quote an opinion of the cele-
brated tra\('ller Humboldt. —

" The natives (of Peru) described to him that the name Chim-
bonizo, meant sim[)ly " the snow of Ciiimbo," a name given to the
district in which the mountain is situated : but he inclined to think
that the name might be totally indei)endent of the Inca language,
and ha\e come down from an earlier and forgotten ag<^ He points
out that the names of other mountains, such as (*otopaxi, Pictunea
and Ilinissa, are totally devoid of meaning in the language of the

THK ANTIQUITY' OF MAX IN AMERICA.

Incas, and concclvos that tlic name Cliimborazo, like these, may
have been (l(M-i\('il from 8ome tonj^iic whose memory has perished
from the faee of the earth."

ilj)al)le

cele-

OI'IXIONS COXTUOVKUTKI).

These quotations as well as numerous others of a simihu* bear-
ing tliat miii'ht have been made, eovcr what may be 8tyk;d theolyce-
tive theories to the unity of the human family ; l)ut no proeess of
induetion will establish as a fact the su^'i^estions of J^ai'acelsus, that
the races of men and animals were severally created in the regions
which thev inhabited: or the " theorv," published bv liurnet, that
Paradise was without the Eastern (continent; or the " opinion' of
Morton — that the American nations are the true (mtoclifhones,
having an Inditjcnoux relation to each other; or that of Nott and
Gliddon, and Agassiz — that for aught we know the appearance of
man uj)on earth may be millions of years beyond our reach, — that
the human fossil remains of Brazil and Florida prove the original
population of this continent prior to that of Asia, — that non(! of the
animal species are identical; — or the strong opinion of ('aj)tain
Bernard Romans — that (rod created an original man and woman in
this part of the gh)be, of a dilferent species fi-om any in other parts ;
— or the half ventured o[)inion of llaliburton, that the refined
and civilized nations of the Ohl AVorld arc descended from the
savages, or the presumed ancient civilization of the Pacific
Islands; — or that of Colonel Galindo — that to the primeval civili-
zation of America wc nuist assign an indefinite anti([uity, — and
that colonies from that antiipiity couunenced the civilization of jFapan
and Cliina.

It is worthy (»f notice connected with the geological evidence of
man's first a[)pearancc on the earth, that when any ju'oposition is
made which seems to inxalidate the Scri[)ture history, counter evi-
dence is easily and readily produced, based upon scientific fiicts and
deductions in accordance therewith. Xonc of these |)hilosopher8,
with the desire in their hearts to show that the human race is
twenty, thirty, fi)rty, or a hundred thousand years old, })retend tliat
man appeared on the earth before the recent peritxl, or when all
things were nuich the same as they are now, exce])t the changes
wrought by convulsions of nature, subsidence or emergence in sundiy

(-~

TIIK ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMKIUCA.

r ;

il !

[)laces, volounic action, cartli(|iial<o, or flood. They find a ])rc-
lustoric tiino in tiio existence of man in Europe and America,
stretch ini;' hack into eras of uncertain date and continuance. They
find his hones and ru(h; iuipkMnents, sdon;^ witli or nii^h to tiie bones
of extinct animals, which there is f;ood reason t(j lu'lievc were con-
temporary witii him, and wliich in his migration.;, with all the
world hcfore liim, he may have hunted and eaten. rhey find these
remains imhcdded in alluvium, or |)cat, or limestone, under circum-
stances suii,'L!;esti\e of ich'us that tiicy are coeval, alth()ui>h totally
ignorant of the phenomena that may have hroun'htthcm together ; and
tliey base a theory of time upon a suspicion of fiicts, wliich pro-
vokes discussion, leads to further research, and almost invariably
[troduees counter evidence to u[)set or neutralize tlicii- spccuhi-
tions. The principles of the science ol' (ieoloixy are firndy estab-
lished; but calculati'.ms of time durinji; any of its successive periods
are not to be relied on ; and in the llecent especially, Avhen made to
account for the age of such loose materials as alluvium, or peat, or
such easily compacted rocks as coral or limestone, or of their contained
remains, nuist be generally doubtful, and often false and delusive.

Tlu! bold assertion of Messrs. Xott and (Hiddon, that the fossil
remains of lirazil and Florida carry back the original jjojmlation
of America beyond the necessity of hunting fo;* AmiM'ican man's
foreign origin through Asiatic emigration, is of the character
above alluded to, and is met and reasonably disposed of by
Sir Clias. Lyell, himself not free from a certain belief in the
pre-adamite antiquity of man. He had called attention to the
Brazilian human fossils in his travels in America in 1842,
when he ituiigincd, owing to the presence in the same matrix of
oysters with serpula'.; attached, the whole to be of sid)marine origin.
Subse(iuently he f)und reason to relin((uish that idea, and did
not doubt that the shells had been brought to the phvce and heaped
up with other materials, at the time when the bodies were buried,
and then supposed that " the whole artificial earthwork, with its
shells and skeleton, might ha\e been bound together by an infiltra-
tion of carbonate of lime, and that the mound might therefore be of
no higher antirpiity than some of those on the Ohio, — to which he
alludes in substance as follows :

" The extraordinary number of the mounds imjdies .i long period.

mmm

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMEUICA.

lan c
actor
by
tlu«
the
842,
■IX of
•iu'ln.
(lid
'apod
1 1 vied,
th its
liltra-
bc of
ich he

iod.

durirify which a settled agricultural population had made consider-
able j)ro?i;ress in civilisation — ea as to require temples for religious
rites, and fortifications to protect them from their enemies. Some
(the mounds) are so ancient that rivers have had time to encroach
on the lower terrace which su])p()rts them, aiid havinnf undermined
and destroyed a ])art of the works, again to recede for the distance
of nearly a mile."

The age of these mounds is approached by a (piotation i'rom a
memoir on the s'bject by the late (ieneral Harrison, IVesident of
the United States in 1841. "We may be sure," he ol)serves,
"• that no trees were allowed to o-pow so Ion;; as the earthworks were
in use, and when they were forsaken the ground, like all newly
cleared land in Ohio, would for a time be mono[)oliz(;d by one or
two sj)ecies of tree, such as the yellow locust and the black or
white walnut. ^Vhen the individuals Avhich ucre the first to get
possession of the ground had died out one after the other, they
would in many eases, instead of being replaced by the same sj)ccies,
be succeeded by other kinds, till at last, after a great niuui)er of
centuries, (several thousand years pei'haps,) that remarkable
diversity of species, characteristic of North America, would be
established."

So then, if we allow two or three thousand years for the trees,
(which I take to be far too long) and two thousand years for the
progressive civilization of the mound builders, (which judging from
the remains of that civilization is too long also,) thiM-e may still be
good ground for believing (Messrs. Xott and (Jliddon to the con-
trary) in the Asian migration to America of the human species, and
in their descent from Adam.

In like manner may the age of the coral reefs of Florida, as
calculated by Professor Agassiz, be disposed of. lie estimates
that it has taken lo"),()()0 years to form the southern half of that
j)eninsida, and based u])on this calculation, that the age of a calcareous
conglomerate, forming a part of those reefs, in which some fossil
human remains have been found consisting of jaws and teeth,
with some bones of the foot, is about ten thousand years old.
Now you will recollect that our worthy President, (^Ir. Jones,) in a
Paper on the Corals of Permuda, showed in a most conclusive man-
ner, that so.ne species of coral, instead of being of slow growth, were

I'l

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

in the Bermudas at least, of very raj)i(l ^'rowth ; and lie ])r()dueed
specimens ot' common wine bottles, which were completely encrust-
ed with it, proving very simply, that it was possible for a larj^e
growth of coral to take place in a few years, and that there-
fore the estimate of ten thousand years as the age of the Florida
human fossil, or a few bones found in dead coral debris thrown
up by the ocean, must be entirely erroneous; and upon this
point alone, without reference to any phenomena but the natu-
ral course of events, or considering other circumstances, these
remains would (;omc far within the chronologic era, whatever may
be their true age.

Again, in this connection, I would shortly refer to the hypo-
thesis framed on the similarity of certain jieriodic ol)servan(.'es in
the eastern and western hemispheres, in the mind of our fi-iend
Haliburton, an<l which has taken complete possession of other
minds. I tliink that clear sighted as he is, and justly ])roud of
his ethnol(>gIcal discovery, he yet goes a step too far when he
imagines that the origin of man took place in the kSouth Sea Islands,
or perhaps in Australia ; or that emigration from thence conveyed
these observances to Asia, from whence they were propagated over
the known world. Surely if it were so, these c(Hmtries prolific of all
that can minister to human progress, could not have fallen into an
oblivion that left no traces of them, or into the extreme of human
degradation. At the discoAcry of America, the Aztecs had succeeded
to, and improved upon the civilization of the Toltecans, — yet Austra-
lia, and many of the Southern Islands, contained a population that
might fairly be termed the fag end of humanity ; with no evidence
of a genius that could warrant a belief that they were the progen-
itors of Asian or European migrants. It would be far more Avith-
in the range of probability to assume, that those observances and
customs were inherited directly from Adam, degenerated by j)rogres-
sive and loni; continued miirration from the common centre, which
had also affected the primeval type of the race ; and in the eastern
hemis{)here that they may have been derived directly from the
Noachian family, who inherited them in common from Adam, and
probably ])racticcd them, but had no knowledge of the Southern
hemisphere.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

THE AMERICAN liACE PUE-NOACIIITE.

While these .ind all other hypotheses and theories which imply
that the AnuTiean savaj^e is predecessor to the civilized races of
the eastern hemisphere, are incapable of bein^ reduced to sufficient
proof, and are therefore contrary to what we believe as an act of
faith, they nevertheless all agree in one essential truth. They carry
back beyond the remotest knowled<(e, and therefore beyond the
Noachian family, the arrival of the human race on this Continent.
Of that era we shall probably never possess more informaticm than
at present. From a peoj)le havin*^ no written lan<>iiage, and living
upon tradition up to the time of Columbus, but little can be expect-
ed that will bear the test of authenticity. This is not surprising.
It is a reiteration of wlint we know of the ancient inhabitants of
P^urope two thousand years ago, and of our own British ancestry.
But in all this there is nothing to disprove the unity of mankind ;
and we may therefore fairly leave their history in America, as God
h.is left it, to be defended by natural phenomena, and a faithful
and reasonable inter})retation of the divine record.

From my own j)oint of view, and for the further elucidation of
my argiunent, it is very im[)Ortant that the high antiquity of the
American race should be fairly established and conceded. I have
shown that geologists and ethnologists arc alike agreed upon the
subject — although in most instances with great exaggeration. I
shall notice further another series of proofs, based upon a similarity
of construction in all, with scarce a single exception, of the primitive
languages of this continent.

EVIDENCE DERIVED FROM THE CONSTRUCTION OF LANGUAGE.

The Hon. Albert Gallatin, an American Secretary of State,
and a learned and judicious writer, who had all the information of
his department relative to the Indian tribes at his disposal, commu-
nicated to the American Antiquarian Society in 183(5, by whom it
was published, " A Synopsis of the Indian tribes within the United
States east of the Rocky Mountains, and in the British and Russian
Possessions of North America." He ascertained the languages of
eighty-one tribes, and investigating the several dialects and voca-
bularies, divided them into twenty-eight families, and of these
he says, " I feel some confidence that I have not been deceived by

'lUK ANTIQUITY OF MAX IN AMERICA.

false ctyniolo^qos, and tluit the errors wliicli may be discovered hy
further researches, will be t'ound to eonsist in liavinfj; eonsidercd a.«
distinct families, some which belonj^ t(t the t«ame stock, and not in
havin*^ arrannjed a^^ belon'^in;^ to the same faniily, any radically
distinct laniiiiau^cs forming separate families." lie uses the
term "'families" not in a limited sense, but in the same way
as we consider tin; Slavonic, the Teutonic, the Latin and (ireek
and Sanscrit, and the Zend or ancient Persian, as retaining!," in
their vocabuhiries conclusive jiroofs of their havinu; originally
sprung from the same stock. The conclusions he arrives at are that
" the number of families of distinct lan.nua<ji;es, and of diiilects, does
not ap[)ear to be iri'eater in Xorth Amei'ica than is found amonirst
uncivilized nations in other quarters of the f>"lobe, or than nii;,dif
have been expected to <:;row out of the necessity for nations in the
hunter state to separate and ^I'adually to form independent com-
munities."' lie can [)erceive nothin<; in the number of the Ameri-
can lan^ua^•es, and in the <2;reat diti'erences between them, inconsis-
tentwith the Mosaic chronolo<;y. And fiu'ther on — " the similarity
of their structure and <:;rammatical forms, has been observed and
pointed out by the American philologists, the result bein_>j; cimfir-
matory of the opinions cm the subject, of Mr. l)u Ponceau, Mr.
Pickerinii; and others ; and as proving- that all the lanuiiayes not
only of our own Indians, but of the native inhabitants of America
from the Arcti<' Ocean to Cape Horn, have as far as they have been
investigated , a distinct character, common to all, and aj)parently
differing!" from anv of those of the other continents with v.hich wc
are most familiar."

j\Ir. (lallatin does not assert that there may not l)e somv
American laniruajres differinn; in their structure from those alreadv
known, or tliat a similarity of chanicter may not be discovered
between the t!;ranunatical forms of the lanu:uaL,^es of America, and
those of some of the lanmiaues of the other hemisphere : but he
says, " the materials already collected appear to justify the general
inference of a similar character :" and further on — the languaijres
" of America seem to me to bear the impress of primitive langua-
ges, to have assumed their form from natural causes, and to afford
no proof of their being derived from a nation in a more advance*!
state of civilization than our Indians. Whilst the unitv of strue-

thv

a(l\|

lani

tine

rool

gcs
bcini

Tilt': ANTrgrrxv of max ix amkuica.

not
■riea
joeii
Mitly

oral

iigua-
attbrd
'ancc<l
struc-

ture and of gnnninatit ill forms |)rov«' a common origin, it may hv
infciTod from this, comhim-d with the m-cat dlvt'rs*itv and entin-
difforciicc in the \',oi(ls of tho .-"'cvoral langna;4('s of America, th'at
this continent received it8 fir^t inhal)itants at a verv remote epoch,
prohahly not much })Ot;tcrior to that of the dispersion of mankind :
and it deserves notice that the great ])hih)h>iL;ist N'atei coidd point
<>\\: iiut two lanu'uages that, on account of the muUiplicity of their
t'orms, had a character if not Kimilar at least analogous to those
of America." These were the Congo and the IJastjue. The first is
spoken hy a l>ar!)arous nation of Africa. Tlie oth(>r is now univer-
sally adniitti'd to he a remarkahle relic of a most ancient and pri-
mitive language, the ancient Iherian, formccl in the most early ages
ot' the world. '■

The peculiar characteristics oi' flu- Anici'ican languages, arc
shortly dcscrilx'd in a ivport of the Historical Couunittec of the
American IMiilolonical Society, piihlished in 1<S1!I — " We Hud'" the
report states, " a ii('if\ maimer of compounding woi'ds from various
roots, so as to >ti-ikc! the mind at once with a whole mass of i(k>as :
a neiv manner of expressing the; cases of suhstantives hy inflecting
the verhs thiit govern them : a itctf ninnher (the pai'ticular plural).
ap[)lied to the declension of nouns and conjugation of verhs ; a new
concordance in tense of the conjunction Avith the verb ; we see not
(udy pronoinis, as in the Hebrew and some other languages, hut
adjectives, conjimctions and adverbs, combined with tlie principal
part of sjieech, snid producing an inunense variety of ^erl)al forms.
When we consider these and many other singidarities, -which so
eminently characterise the American idioms, we naturally ask our-
selves th<> (piestion ; Are languages formed on this model to be found
in any other part of the earth?"'

Now this facility of com})ounding words, and of combining with
the princi])al part of speech, pronouns, adjectives conjnnctions and
adverbs, when once mastered, seems to exj>lain why the jVmerican
lan£rua":es are so nnich more munerous than those of other con-
tinents, because it would be very easy to invent additions to the
roots to suit all ideas, as circumstances might arise, which amongst

* It is obsorvod l)y Vater also — iliat "the discrepancy in the American langua-
ges extends to words or notes onlv, the general internal or grammatical structure
being the same for all."

t New to them, but very old in point of time.

TnK ANTIQCI-n' OF MAN IN AMKRICA.

wanclc'rin<ij trilx's would soon transform a diakn't. If we take there-
fore thcM-alculation of tlu; ccleljrated Addling, lliat tlio nnnil)er of
American lan<;ua<jfC8 and dialects amounts to 12(14, which is nearly
douhlc those of Asia and Africa together, the preponderance might
prohal)ly result from the hefore mentioned cause. Still tlic ele-
ment of time may he necessary if we desire to ai-rixe at a fair con-
elusion where the muidxM* of languages is so large by com|)aris()n.
If we assume that it has taken the j)eriod since the I'loixl to accu-
mulate the languages and dialects of Africa and Asia, we may have
to admit the probithllihj of a nmch longer jx'riod, to account
satisfactorily for the larger number of languages and dialects in
America, and therefore of the higher anti([uity of the race.

To every believer in the Mosaic chronology and narrative of
events, it will appear indis[)utable that the sons of Noidi and their
immediate descendants spake the language, or a dialc(!t of the
language, of the Adamic race before the Flood. However long it
may have taken after this last event to arrive at the })]ain of Shinar,
(the site of which is (piestioned at the present day,) and however
they may have multiplied in the meanwhile, that narrative informs
lis, that then " the whole earth (i. e. that race of men,) was of one
language and one speech."' With such a simple fact as this, I am
puzzled to account for the anxious search of philologists after a
language they call the Aryan, from which to })rove the derivation
of all known languages. It was undoubtedly that spoken by the
Adamic family previous to the Deluge, and by the Xoachian family
immediately after it. There may have been several dialects
amt)ngst the antediluvians. But it is rpiitc evident that the Shinar
language w^as that of Noah, the only question iL'ing as to what was
at that epoch the extent of the refinement of language. When the
dispersion took place, that is, when the Lord visited them, the unity
which previously existed was dissolved or broken by pestilence, or
strife, or jealousies, which caused the various tribes and families to
separate in every direction, with all the eastern world befoi-e them.
From these separations sprang numerous dialects, which as inter-
communication ceased soon changed into distinct languages, which
as civilization and refinement prevailed became polished and
artistic, retaining little or nothing of the original structure ; and in
the course of ages, when writing was invented and letters cultivated,
dispensing with it altogether.

nc
lee

anf
ap]
fac
the

ricl

TMK ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMEHICA.

crc-
r of
liirly

clc-
con-
irion.

lU'C'U-

havc
count

cts in

ivc t)f

1 their

^f the

long it

^hinar,

mvcver

nfornis
of one

(, I am
after a

•ivation
by the
family
dialects
Shinar
hat was
hen the
he unity
ence, or
milies to
•e them.
as inter-
g, which
icd and
and in
iltivated,

For tl»c structure of tliis purely ori<(inal lan<;ua<:(c of mankind,
(a pift of the Creator,) we must look to a jxjriod lon<^ anterior to
Xoah. There is some reason for the helief that philolo<ify had he-
(U)me a science amoni( the antcdihivians. The Innnan race when
the Flood came was IGOO years old, and nmst have advanced in
art and science. It is significant of considerable projjress in lau-
guaj^e, that Xoah was liiniself " a [)reachcr of righteousness;" and
in the arts, that he could have constructed such a [)iece of naval
architecture as the ark. The ^*ict also, that polislied lanj^ua^es,
like the Zend or ancient Persian, and the Sanscrit, both of which
still retain remote atKnities with previous structures — to say noth-
ing of the Chinese, the Egyptian, the Chaldaic, or the Hebrew —
were in use at an early ])criod after the Xoachian deluge, would
seem to prove that they all received their impulse from the philo-
lofjical attainments of Noah's family.

If then we have to look for the original language of mankind,
nearer to the creation than the date of the deluge, we may infer
that the pco{)le who reached America between those epochs, brought
it with them. There may have been several arrivals. They were
hunters, and have so continued, se})arating from each other, multi-
plying dialects, eschewing civilization and civilizing influences,
never having attained to the art of representing their ideas by
arbitrary characters, and consequently never losing the original
structure of language. They were the true Aryans. When it is
asserted that there are only two knt)wn languages of the eastern
hemisphere, possessing a character analogous to those of America,
the proper enquirj' should be, not whether the languages of Ame-
rica are derived, but the reverse. If the various aboriginal dia-
lects, so similar in their structure and grammatical forms, could
be resolved into their roots, we should probably find the basal lan-
guage, the Adamic, as distinguished from that spoken by Noah
and his immediate oftspring. Even now the Indian dialects must
approach the former more nearly than any other language on the
face of the earth. Nor do I deem it presumptuous to say, that in
the sweet musical tones of the languages of the aborigines of Ame-
rica, (one of which we may hear almost daily,*) we approach as

* The Souriquois or Micmac, spoken by the Indians of Nova Scotia.
2

THE ANTIQiriTY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

nigh as possible to the language in which Adam conversed with
his Almighty Maker in Paradise.*

The examples quoted are sufficiently clear as regards the opin-
ions of able men who have carefully investigated the subject, that the
human race in America were not known to Noah or to his descen-
dants ; but are derived from ancestors who arrived at a time so re-
mote that all trace of it has vanished, not only from history but
from tradition. It is equally plain from all the evidence of colour,
religion, occupation and language, that they were the primitive
people, — that for long ages they continued isolated, and grew
numerous and spread over the continent, still })rcserving their dis-
tinctive unity. If there ever were chance arrivals from the eastern

♦When this paper was read I had not seen Principal Dawson's second edition
of Acadian Geolot,'y. There is in that work an excellent chapter (IV.) on pre-
historic man, which accords generally, but more at length, with the short notice
of the Souriquois (Micmac) tribe of Indians, which I have given further on. The
" Appendix" contains also, under the letter "A — Micmac Language and Super-
stitions," some very interesting observations and examples, for which Dr.
Dawson is indebted to Rev. Mr. Rand, referring to strong points of resemblance
between the Micmac and Maliseet languages and some of the older languages of
Europe, which may still be traced in many root words. These points of resem-
blance are certainly very striking. Dr. Dawson says "They are undoubtedly too
numr rous and important to be purely accidental ; though they may be accounted
for by supposing that the Algonquin languages, (of which the Micmac is a dialect,)
actually retain traces of roots derived from the Eastern Continent ; or by supposing
that in the formation of the language similar ideas as to onomatopoeia occurred to
the mind of the American Indian and his contemporaries in the Old World."

The tenor of Dr. Dawson's observations proves that he is as much hampered
by the Noachian Deluge, as any of his predecessors who have written upon the
subject. Most of the words compared have the same sound and signification in
the Micmac dialect and Greek language. But it is hardly possible that the Greeks,
who in the days of Homer and for ages previously, had made so little im-
provement in the science of navigation, and who rarely ventured out of the
Mediterranean at any subsequent period of their ancient history, could have passed
to America, either to colonise, or by accident. The same may be affirmed but
with less reason of the Hebrews. Some other solution must be found to account
for the resemblance; and I think a much more satisfactory one is that which I
have given. If the Greek, Hebrew and cognate languages, as well as those of
more ancient date, manifest a similarity in the form and meaning of certain
words, and also, but much less striking, in some principles of construction to the
Micmac, would ii .;ot be much more reasonable, seeing these are now few, to derive
them from a language spoken in the old world some eight hundred years before
the Noachian Deluge, when the ancestors of the Micmacs may have been wending
their way to this continent. I believe it will be found that the nearer the ancient
languages approach in time to that event, the greater will be the general similari-
ty to the languages of America, allowance being made for the advancement as
regards the former, in philological science ; and with reference to coeval ideas of
"onomatopoeia," we may suppose that the human mind, separated in the body by
immense distances, may have (and I believe has) produced architectural forms
Tery much alike ; but it is inconceivable that congruent ideas, should produce the
same sounds, or forms of speech so much alike.

The Algonquin is the most numerous, widest spread, and probably^he most
ancient of all the northern families of Indians.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

hemisphere, they must have been at a much hiter period in the history
of mankind, and were not sufficient to influence the dominant char-
acteristics. They may have taken place, and helped to modifv
some of these to such an extent as to ^ive a new turn to the abori-
ginal mind, and lead onward to that civilization wliich was appar-
ent in iMexico, Central America, and Peru, when the bi<;!;otted
Spaniard came upon the scene.

pered
j)on the
ition in
lirocks,
ttle im-
of the
passed
med but
account
which I
those of
certain
to tlie
derive
before
wending
ancient
siniilari-
ment as
ideas of
body by
I forma
luce the

;he most

TRADITIONART AND GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE.

Although positive proof does not exist, there is a probability,
based upon traditionary and geological evidence, that since the advent
of man there has been a continuity of land between the eastern and
western hemispheres Many circumstances favour the supposition,
which has been countenanced in ancient and modern times.

It is recorded by Plato, that an Egyptian priest related to Solon,
(then a traveller in Egypt, about fiOO years before our era,) "that
in one of the numerous deluges that had taken place, the great
island of Atlantis, larger than Lybia and Asia together, was sub-
merged in the ocean that bears its name. The Island was stated
to be op})osite the Straits of Gades, (Gibraltar.) Allusions to this
lost island or continent are frequent in Greek and Roman writers ;
and modern authors are quoted as believing in its reality. Accord-
ing to Plato there were first snudler islands, from which there was
an easy passage to the larger one or continent beyond. It is
supposed by many that this Atlantis was America."

The geological evidence of the probable existence of continuous
land is supported by facts and inferences derived from the science.
I have already stated that it would be easy now to make the ]>assage
from Europe, or from Asia to America, by the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans. There is no record that it was ever made in ancient times,
since the continents and islands have assumed their present simpe
and proximity. They have not, however, always maintained these
relative positions. Great changes have undoubtedly taken ]>lacc,
in the eastern hemisphere especially, since the advent of man — so
vast indeed that we can only satisfactorily account for the long and
com[)lete isolation of America, and the peculiar character of its fauna
and of the human family within its limits, by sujjposing that the
cataclyism that left the Xoachian family to repeople the eastern

THE AXTIQUIIT OF ISIAN IN AMEKICA.

EWorld must have cfFectuallr divided it from this continent, except
at }u)iiits wlwix* tl»erc was rm likelihood for lone: a^^es of intercourse
with its people, or its animal life of any sj)ecies (»r variety.* This
F.S perfectly in consonance with what I take the liberty to style the
iintrinsie truth of the INfosaic history.

Sir John llerschel, in a work on Physical Geography, published
Pi 8 (II, wlitia speaking of the open sea which is caused in part of the
^)olar regions by the escape of ice thr( nigh Behring's Streights, ob-
serves that these Streights, by which the continents of Asia and North
-America are ri(')w parted, ■" ai-e only thirty miles broad where nar-
?"Owest, and ocly twenty-five fathoms in their greatest depth.
iBut this narrow channel," he adds, " is yet imjiortant in the econo-
I'lsy of nature, inasmuch as it allows a portion of the circulating
"ivater from a warmer region to find its way into the polar basin,
.-aiding thereby not only to mitigate the extreme i-igour of the polar
«'ol<l, but to prevent in all pr(d3ahility a continurd accretion of ico.
which else miji'kt risie to a mountainous heio-ht/'

Dana in Kis excellent Manual of GcoIolv, treating of the
•geographical distribution of volcanoes, a cause or effect ol' disturl)-
rvnces of strata, obseiTCs, — '' In the Aleutian Islands, which form a
v'urve like a festoon across the northern Pacific, there are. 21 islands
avith volcanoes; in Kauttschatka, 15 to 20: in the Kuriles 18:
m the Japan group 24."

Facts seem to indicate that Behring's Streights may not have
existed in the early centuries of the history of m;ui. The volcanic
Aleutian Islands, stretching across the ocean at no great distance
south from them, if they rej)resent the summits of submerged lands,
ns mav reasonably be believed, would indicate a vast area of subsi-
dence in which they may have been prominent ag-ents, and which
may have affected the whole region, extending northwaixlly to and
beyond tlie Streights. (Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith, in his
work on the Natural History of the Human Species, which is often
quoted as good authority, observes of Behring's Streights, — "As the
water with several shoals, is fiooded with fossil bones and shells,
;ind there being no river of importance on either shore of the conti-
nents, or near on the arctic side, no great pressure can h.ave conu'
from the polar ocean ; and consequently, no great opening if any.

(I
t

Tlie»e are very eimilar at tlie points of nearest apprcacli.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

ICO.

until the arctic I'isinjj; of Aaui and Europe altered the relative condi-
tions of the two seais. That once there was no current, may he in-
ferred from the islands; of New Sil)eria (northwest of the Strei^hts)
bein^in part composed of ice mixed with mammoth hones, tusks and
other or<^anic remains ; and the presence of several species of land
mammals commim to both eontineu.o, attests a facility of j)!jssin<>"
from one to anotlier." These fossil bones and other recent or^^an-
isms, show thsit the animals to Avhich they Ijclonued iiihahited the
country and roamed over it ; and that therefore tlie climate nnist
have been very nmcli milder than it is now, and the vegetation
luxuriant. This AV(iuld be the case undoubtedly, if tin; land A\ere
once as elevated as is Mount St. Klisis, south of the peninsula oi
Alaska. A ran_Lie of hiij;h lands, spreading such a distance, cutting
off con)nnmieation with the frigid ocean, and swejit at their base
by the warm currents of the Pacific shores of America and Asia,
would have had a tenij)erature in the valleys in this latitude as high
as that of the Japan Islands ; and there would have l)een no ob.-ta-
de to the jiassage to America of any ])ortion of the race of Adam
which might ha\e made progress in this direcrion. This condition
of the arctit; regions granted, there need be no (picstion now as
to the colour, or i>hvsi()'.):nomv, or craniology of the human i)i'ings

ntrv from which thc\- mi-

\^ '

ho first arrived in America,

or tiie cou

ijfrated. Xor if there be

gootl grounds tor sup[)osmg sucli a catas-

trophe as I have assumed for tiie arctic borders of the contint'iits.
whicli may have taken place conteni[)oraneoiisly with the Noachian
<leluge, in- anterior or sui)se(iueiitly in the history of mankind, there
can be nothing strange in the diluvial tradition connnon among all
the American tribes. It may l)(> referred to such an exi'ut, (*r one
verv distinct from that in which Xoah and his faniilv were i)reser\('d.
It docs not ap]»ear that the American coast oftlie Pacific south
of the Aleutians, partook of tht' depression which has so aiferted
the Asian sid(>. South of thc^e islands is Mount St. lOlijjs. 17, .")()()
feet high ; and no such disturbanct' within human chronology has
affected the llockv ^[ountains or the Andes, nowhere at a great
distance from the Pacific.

lupposing then that the catastrophe which submerged the arctic

land?

and which mav hav(^ involved the si'a of Kamtschatka, tl

Kurile islands, the sea of Jajjan and even the Yellow Sea, all great

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

basins of depression on the Asian side of the Pacific, festooned by
curves of volcanic islands, — was rapidly progressive, and that they
have never recovered their former elevation, we shall be compelled
to assume a chanije of climate, the destruction of a vast number of
species, and the complete isolation of all the rest from cither conti-
nent for the last five or six thousand years ; and if we may further as-
sume, that at this early period only man and comparatively few recent
species had reached the American continent, the fact may be ac-
counted for why species are less numerous upon it than in the
old world ; while a reason is afforded, not however conclusive,
why the fauna of America is dissimilar to that of Europe and Asia,
where there has been no isolation whatever.

When we call Geology to our aid to account for the northern
continuity of land joining the continents, we shall find reason to believe
that the facilities in the earliest periods must have been far greater
than has yet been described, of reaching America bv what I mav
call the middle, or southern passage. Dana, whom I have before
(pioted, instances the coral islands of the Pacific as afForduig proofs
of great secular subsidence in that ocean. He divides by a line
between Pitcairn's Island and the Pelew Islands, the coral islands
from those not coral. Over the area north of it to the Ilawaian islands
all the islands are atolls,* exce[)ting the Marquesas and three or four
of the Carolines. If the atolls are rci^isters of subsidence, (as is be-
lieved,) a vast area has partaken of it measuring OOOO miles in
length, (a fourth of the earth's circumference,) and 1000 to 2000 in
breadth. Just south of the line there are extensive coral reefs ; north
of it the atolls are large, but they diminish toward the equator, and
disappear mostly north of it. The amount of this subsidence may
be inferred from the ecmndings near some of the Islands, to be at
lejist 8000 feet. But as two hundred islands havedisapp.eared, and
it is probable that some among them were at least as high as the
average of existing high islands, the whole subsidence cannot be
less than (5000 feet. It is probable that this sinking began in the
post tertiary peri(jd.

This subsidence, which has now ceased, as is pi'oved by the
wooded condition of the islands, must have materially increased the
distance between them, which was probably nuich less at the date

• Sunken Islands fringed by coral reefs.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

5
2.

of man's creation, and for a thousand years later, than it in now.*
Consequently there were ji;reater facilities of transit, and more
resting places for a progressive emigration from one continent to the
other. Supposing it possible that the route would have been taken
(it may have been by accident) which is indicated in the distances
between the Islands, there would have been the same facilities for
repassing. But although the facts stated may .account for a pro-
gressive emigration from Asia some centuries after the Creation,
which may have reached this continent and imi)ressed upon the
central portions of it the germs of civilization, it is not at all pro-
bable that they point to the peopling of the Pacific Islands, until
a period subsequent to the Noachian Deluge.

EVIDENCE OF (X)LOUU AND FEATURES OF THE AMERICAN RACE.

It accords with my theory, and consists with my belief, that the
name Adam, given to the man in the day that he was created,
betokened the colour of the individual as well as the material out of
which h{^ was made. That colour being red would not have been
lost in his descendants, in the generations that elapsed between his cre-
ation and the date of the Xoachian deluge. If transmitted therefore
with those of tlunn Avho arrived before the last event upon this con-
tinent, as it certainly nuist have been, we have })i-obably, the origi-
nal ty[)e of man, and also his colour before us, in the pure

* In considering tlie pcoloi^ic plicnonion.i that may liavo affVctcd tlio peo-
pling of AniiTicn we must not lose siijlit of tlie Paeifie Islands, wliieli stretch be-
tween the two continents within twenty-five (k'grees north and south of the equa-
tor. Tlie existin}^ facilities of conunnnication that are now afforded are thus des-
cribed by a modern author. "Lookinji specially at the nuip the distance between
the diflerent itroups of islands sccuis immense; but between these are smaller
solitary islands, which materially diminish the distance to be traversed in order to
pass from one t(/ another. 8ui)iiose that the i)ro;ienitors of th» islanders (l*oly-
nesians) had started from the IVIalay coast or Sumatra, what would have been
their route ? ]?y sailing 5 dejirees or ;500 miles they would reach IJorneo ; then
by crossing the Straits of Macassar about two hundred miles wide, thej- would
arrive at the Celeljcs, eight degrees from New Gviinea : but the large islands of
Bessey and Ceram intervene. The distance from New lluinea to the New
Hebrides is I'JOO miles, but the islands between them are so mimerous that the
voyage may be made by short and easy stages. Five hundred miles frosn the
New Hebrides are the Figis ; and about JlUU miles furtlier on the Friendly Islands ;
.nnother stage of fiOO miles brings you to the Navigators; hut between these two
points tlire(! other groui)s intervene. From the .Navigators to the Hervey islands
the distance is about 700 miles, and from thence to the Society group about 400
more. The western const of South .America is not very remote from the east-
ernmost island of Polynesia, (near I'OOO miles, however,) called Easter Isle, frocn
which it nuiy be reached in a few days sailing, with several islands or resting
places between them. — Miss'ny Enterprise S. Sea Islands, by Bcv, J. Williams, i^c.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

American Indian. That colour is modified in the hif^h northern
latitudes, and is <(radually heightened as it approaches Central
America, where the warm climate acts as it does upon the races of
the temperate zone of the eastern hemisphere, after permanent
residence for successive ji^enerations in the torrid zone — by deepen-
ing the tints. Nor is the red colour lost in the descendants of the
family of Noah. We find it occasionally very vivid. I have seen
it much redder in Europeans, especially in the Celtic family, than
I have ever seen it in the Indian — in Avhom it approaches more
nearly the Mongol red than the European. AVhen in this last it
comes out strong, it is a ruddy brick red, such indeed as is the
consequence of a habit long continued of drinking ardent spirits. I
do not mean, however, to connect the colour with that vice. It is
in many in.stancos natural. Among the Celts of this Province, when-
ever an individual shows it stronurlv, and it is desired to distinjjuish
him from others of the same clan or surname, the (xaelic word
ro?/ which means red, is appended to his name, and he becomes
liory McKenzie. ;y>y, or as the name may be. This much for red
being the natiu'al colour of mankind. The Avhitc man, by which
name the civilized native of the tem})erate zones is distinguished
among the dark races, has a colour which seems to be entirely a
modification of climate, bv which after Ioul; ages he has changed
to a pink and white variety, a mixed colour, with occasionally a
return to the original type too plain to be mistaken. It is a singular
fact connected with this enquiry, that all the animals subjected by
civilized man, vary in colour ; while each species of t\\c Jenr. natnrm
preserve a striking uniformity.

It ought not therefore to be considered remarkable, that the
Indian races maintain their uniform colour throughout the continent,
although it may admit of question if they have done so entirely.
A similarity of occu[)ation, a generally unsettled life, pursuits
which could not fail to turn the coloiu* even of Knroj)ean-«, the ab-
sence of civilization and sedentary occupations, all operate to pre-
vent a change while they continue. That these causes have con-
tinued, and widiout interruption, through all their history, is toler-
ably evident, notwithstanding tiie remains of extinct races that
exist, who may for a time have risen 8U[)erior to the wild tribes
around them. Where there had been any a[)proach to settled life

TIIR ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMEUICA.

amoiiLj; the fiimilics of the caciques, or amonj;^ the rulin"; familiea of
Mexico, or the Incas of Peru, hi-story informs us, tliat living in
luxurious ease and refinement, they were as delicate and fair as
Europeans. It may well be believed that they were much fairer
than the Moor-tinted Spaniard who invaded them, and destroyed,
or did liis best to destroy a noble race.

OriXIOXS ON IDENTITY OF RACES CONSIDEIIEI).

Dr. Pickerini;, an American author of deservedly hi^i^h rcj)ute,
in a work entitled "• The races of men and their <^eo_L^raj)hical distri-
bution," satisfied hiniKelf that the Californians, Mexicans and
West Indians were MdJaij Americans, that is, owed their deriva-
tion to the ]Malay stock. The only mark by which he could distin-
j^uish Ixitwcen native Polynesians and half civilized Californians at
the Hay of San Francisco, was that the hair of the f)rmer waved
and inclined to curl, while the latter was invariably straii^ht. He
says, "the Cyalifornlans do not scalp their enemies, nor use the
tomahawk." All the other American races he classes as Mont^o-
lian. His observations appear to me to stop far short of the truth.
Indecfl they iinwittinLrly point to the mi_t:;ration of the Malay race
long sui)se(iuent t(» the o(n'upation of the continent by a mora pri-
mitive rrtcf, neither Malay nor Mongolian, although allied by
descent, and which may be styled pre-Noachite. In ascril>ing
to the Indian p{>pulation a Malay or Mongolian affinity he is com-
pletely pU/CJcled by contradictory circumstances, all wliich would
have been reconciled had he admitted a pre-Xoachite migration to
America. Tim-!, he says — ''The presence of two aboriginal races
in America (M(»ngolian and Malayan) recalls certain historical
coincidences. The Toltecs, the predecessors of the Aztecs in
Mexico, were ac(iuainted with agricndtnre and manufictures. Now
such cultivation could not have been derived from the N^orthprn Mon-
f/olidii j)opulati()n, who in their j)arent countries, were by climate
p evented from becoming agriculturists. If then the art was intro-
duced at iiWfro)/) abroad, it must have come by a southern route,
and to all aj)[»earance through the ]\Ialay race. This is not incom-
[)atilil(> with an ancient tradition, attributing "the origin of their
civilization to a man having a long beard ;" he could not have been
Mo)f(/o/ian ,' he might have been a Malay. If, however, any

T|f

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

aclunl remnant of the Malay race* existed in the eastern part
of North America, it is probably to be hooked for amonji^ the
Chippewas,f and the Cherokees," — where certainly the arts of
cultivation had never been extensively practised, and where he
will look a lon<^ time in vain for satisfactory confirmation of hie
" probability."

If 1 did not believe that this continent was first inhabited by
the Adamic family proper, I mii^ht be inclined to accc])t the con-
clusions of Ur. Pickerinii;, as to the orii^in of man in America.
There is a general but accidental similarity of feature between our
northern aboriirines, (in wliom however it is so much more noble in
aspect, as to su<i;<2;est at the same time a j)alpable distinction,) and the
Mongol and JVIalay races. I say accidental, but it is not entirely
80. It is what my theory would lead any one to expect. If the
Adamic origin is represented in a race of Noachite descent — and
the Monp)lian is one of the most ancient as well as the purest of the
post-diluvian stocks of men — it would be a reasonable inference that
this most ancient and pure stock, should have a striking' resem-
blance to a more primitive stock, separated from and preceding it
by a <^ood many centuries — both beinq; modified to a similar tone of
colour and expression of feature by climate very nmcii alike ; and
nearly the same may be said of tlie Malay race. Some who hear
me will, I dare say, recollect the Japanese troupe, recently in
Halifax. 1 went to see them to u;et some instruction in the })hygi-
ognomy oi' races, and to a certain extent obtained it. There was
the " maker of celestial music "| — he was an obese and apparently
good natured and cunning fellow, with the brains to invent the
speculation in which he was engaged, and the wisdom to profit by
it. He had a head, the form of which would answer to any nation-
ality whose costume he might assume — a true cosmojiolite structure.
The features of a distinct race were in him n)orged in an
intermixture of races. The next was a "top spinner," a very
amusing fellow, who had wasted a good deal of innate genius in a
worthless occupation, which, Avisely directed, migiit have made him

♦ Tlic Italics are mine. — W. G.

t Gallatin says they did not practice cultivation.

j So styled in the bills — the " celestial music " beini^r a kind of guitar which
produced sounds of .i tin-kettle character, but kept up a time to which the
acrobat accommodated his motions.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

} \

•hich
the

a more useful if not a better man. So far a.s appearance went, he
mi<rht be a com{)Oun(l of the various races which have made
up the empire of Japan, the ancient fi/pe predominant. But
there were two boys, very respectable acrobats and tumblers, who
performed some amusin<:j if not amazinfjj feats. One of them im-
pressed you very forcibly as beinu; an immediate offsprinu; of
"celestial music," who took it so easy himself, but nevertheless
made younp^ hopeful do his work ; and he did it with commendable
ability. The other in aj)pearance mi<^ht have been the son of an
Indian of the purest blood, and no one would have questioned his
oriu;in. This young fellow was of the genuine Indian colour —
had tiic genuine Indian features, broad face, prominent cheek
bones, black eyes with little or no obliquity, Indian nose, and
coarse jet black hair, which escaped under a band tied round the
head, — and was every whit in apju-arance more of a Micmac
than a Japanese, if the others were good specimens of that
stock. Had that boy apj)r();u'hed me on our streets, I should
have exjiected the juvenile Indian salute — " div' me a cent," and
should not have been suspicious of his origin, had he turned a
somersault in requital of the obligation, altiiough wondering how
he became possessed of that faculty. The Japanese are a very okl
race, an imique race, although mixed perlia[)s in the infancy of
the empire, and since ; and like the Egy{)tians and Chinese, had
shut themselves in from the rest of the world, until in turn this
course of pro(;eeding had so impaired their knowledges of what was
going on without, and with this their aunresssive ener<jies, that thev
were not able to witlij^tand the vigorous pressure of nations of more
expansive intellect. The circumscribed Japanese, more than the
Chinese, whose extensive empire and difroring climates, are of
themselves sufficient to modify, and have modified colour, language
and dialects, have preserved affinities with the American or
Adamic stock; and thus, I take it, that occasionally, or UK^re or
less, the distinctive features of each are perceived in the other,
although the flapanese undoubtedly belong to the Xoachian family.
Although in the progress of the migration east and north a few
families or tribes, under the peculiar geological condition of the
earth at the period, may easily have reached this continent, it does
not follow that they brought along with them any of the elements

TMK ANTIQUITY OF MAX IN' AMEHICA.

of civil iziition. We iii;iy well Ix'licvc tliiit tlioir joiinu'V could
neither liavc Ikhmi direct nor t*j)eedy. They wore jtrohahly huntin^j
oft':?ho()ts i'roin the; j)riiuevid stock, as all ofl'fihoots at first must
have been, wauderin;;' further and further from the common centre,
never tnrnini; hack, which it is not in the instincts of the eminra-
tin^ portion of mankind ever to do, either wild or civilized, and
havini; niiiny resting; j)laces hi'fore they reached a country where
their wants w( ii' ahundantiy sui)j)li('d. They must, h()we\ei-, have
itrouu'ht with them the nearest approach to the .Vdauiic woi'ship
of (lod. iis well as to the lan^iinuv. Tlu^ \ai'ioiis distinct fiunilicti
now found in Xoi'th America, nniv re|)resent faithfidh- the ancestrv
of each; or separations oi" amahj,amations at inter\als, and extinc-
tions, may have tak(Mi })lace, which increased or re(luce<l their
oriuiiia.l numher. There will l>e nothinii; incredible in this to all
wh(» believe that the t-nrfm/ hemisphere, with its minu'led nation-
alities, tribes, lanunair<'s and dialects, was peopled by the descend-
ants (tf Xoah. nelievinu' that ere they had reached the country
now the Aleutian islands, ihey had already lost all knowlcdue of
rheii" oriiiin, except what was traditionary, which vaguely appears
in some of the le^-ends of the oldest tribes, we need not Avonder as
aiies rolled on, at their iL'norance of their nast historv, which thev

C^ It*/

only showed in common with the people who came after Xoah.
They could have known nothinu' of the cultivation of the soil,
either of the art or its applia.nces, and needed not to know, in the
abundance of animal life that on all hands administered to their
necessities and their comforts. Hut (»f that hapj)y time when this
continent had but few human inhabitants, when peace ]>revailed
in their tribes, and plenty in their wiu'wams, and the chase was
occupation and pleasure and subsistence, the iemend)ran<H' has
been indelibly impressed (»n the Indian mind to the latest j^ene-
ration, and forms an osential feature of his creed. That he may
attain to it is his chief incentive to a u'ood life. It Is to him a
material heaven ; and he has buried with him e^erv implement
which may be of use when he arrives at the ha[)i)y huntini; li'i'ounds
in the land of spirits, where united with those he loved in life, and
with those who had <;'one before, they may together enjoy foi" ever
the pleasure and excitement of the chase.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMEHIOA.

they
S'oali.

soil,
n the

tlieir
this

ailed
I' was
i" hiu^

ii'euc-
(' may

him a

cmeut
)un(ls
, and

r ever

t \

KVIDIONCK or CLLTIVATION OK TIIK SOIL.

Tt is pi'ohiihle that ciiltivation never oriiiinated from necessity.
The contrary opinion has been held, hnt it is liardly tenahje. Mim
naturally docs not look to the soil for snhsistenee. It is a forcible
firi^nnient in favour of the peopliiiy- of this continent from the North,
tliat a!I its cultivation nuist have proceeded from the South, that is,
from tile central reii;i()ns of America, where most likely it oriuinated.
In his primitive state, in most temperate and in all frigid climates,
where veL'"etati(^n is ammully destroyed, man would never think of
it, or the attem[)t would seem hopeless, and he woidd content him-
self with such cereals and esculents and fruits, as nature provided
in her <:(>nial seasons. The difficulties in subduiuijf the soil and
husbandinij: its productions, would be nmch greater than in subduini;
the wild animals which rt)amed over it. lie coidd never have eon-
eeivo<1, without exam])le, of a systeui of tillaue, by which the
ground was to be prepared foi* the seed, and the harvest <:atliered
and secured for future use. In \orthern America he found the
v.-lld animals a pre-existent creation, in a climate eonijenial to their
nature, nud nudtiplied exceedinuly, as though awaitini; his inroads.
We shall not therefore be warranted in assertinnj^ that husbandry
was the normal condition of the American [)ortion of mankind.
Indeed the contrary is typiiiod in the sacred volume, when* it is
said that " imto Adam and his wife did the Lord Crod make coats
of skins, and clothed them."' AL!;ricidtnrc most likely oriLrinated
in climates of efjnal)le temperature, where tlu> productions of the
soil intermitted and in some deirree tn|)erseded the necessity for
the lal)()nrs of the chase. It would be first learnt, and its benefits
})ereeived, when minTation stopped at a region where the earth
broui,dit forth spontaneously the products that not only sustained
life but administered to luxury. In a country like Kii'v})t, for
instan<"e, where the annual inundation fertilized the soil, and seasons
j)rcsented no obstacle to a continuation of crops, man would soon
become acquainted with its rudiments. Placed tims by nature
beyond the fear of want, he would roam no further ; and in a settled
life wonld soon discover the causes of fertility, and how to improve
them to the utmost extent of affordinsi; sustenance to large communi-
ties. In process of time the knowledge thus gained would be commu-
nicated to other countries not so favoured. In Mexico and Central

' '/

TTIR ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

America, more perhaps tlian in E^ypt, just such a wponta neons
fertility existed ; and jiiwt such cmi«es ;j;atliered the first wamli'rers
of the Xortii into tliis favoured re^'ion, where they became stationary
<and attained to a reniarkahh; decree of civilization and rcHni'inent,
manifested in tlieir architectural remains. This civilization waa
never entirely lost, althoui^h its empire may have been destroyed by
irru[)tions of barbarian tribes from the North ; but was of itself
sufficiently strong to absorb the ccnupierors, and even to chanu'c their
habits and modes of life. The analogy is nearly j)erfect, w ithout
at all assuming that they knew each other, between the j)rogress of
the Adamic civilization in America, and that of the family of Noah
in the eastern hemisphere, in the earliest portion of the world's his-
tory with which we are acquainted.

Cultivation, in any j)ortion of this continent north of the
equator, docs not ap[>ear to luivc ever been extensive or varied.
The Mexicans had attained to some ])ro(iciency in the art, and it
was practised rudely by the tribes who inhabited east and west of
the Mississippi. The hibour in most instances was performed by
women. Maize, of which it has been said, that it is not indigen-
ous in America — thiit it may have l)een brought to this continent
from the West India islands — and also that it is an Asian cereal,
— was the chief article grown as food. Nor is this to be asserted
without qualification. Catlin, in his description of the Festival
which the Mandans lield at their corn harvest, says, — that they
wasted in a few days the produc^t of a whole year. It may therefore
have been looked upon among the tribes high up on both banks of
the Mississippi, wli > de[)ended more entirely on the chase, as a
luxury of a short continuance, with which to diversify at a particular
season the glut of animal food. Some esculents and roots, beans,
pumpkins, sweet potatoes, water melons, and tobacco, in addition
to the maize, were all the vegetable productions with which they
were acquainted. It has however been satisfactorily ascertained,
that the tribes toward the south depended more upon the cultiva-
tion of the soil than the northern Indians, and less on hunting, an
evidence of the gradual extinction of wild animals, and the natural
progress towards civilization. When De Soto explored the coun-
try from Mexico to the Mississippi the Spaniards were fed almost
exclusively on maize, and complained of the want of meat. Two

' \

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

id.

eoun-
iihnoBt
Two

hundred years later, Bernard Romans, whom I have before (juoted,
Bays, " that near half of the Cho(!taw8 had never killed a deer in
their lives." There can be no doubt, that the mounds and remains
of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys attest to the presence at one
period of a numerous peoj)le, who must have dependcid in some
degree on a rather extensive vej^etable production. It is, however,
singular with reference to this race, that there has never been
found any trace of granaries, imi)lcments, or beasts of burden, or
any other thing betokening a high or more than a rudimentary
knowledge; of the art.

These arc conditions of existence in connection with the mound
builders, smd yet their era may have been so ancient, that time
had obliterated all such remains while it left the mounds. I
consider it remarkable in connection with this subject, that the
bison (or buffalo) is found within a well defined area, nigh
to the rivers where this ancient cultivation, as it may be sup-
posed, had been j)ractised. (iallatin is good authority for the rela-
tionship of this animal to the ox of the eastern hemisphere. AVhat
he affirms is curious, and deserves to be stated Jit length, as of some
theoretical importance in considering the instincts of the sj)ecie8,
and the antiquity of the American race. He says: — "The
bisons are found in the jNIissouri plains, in flocks of several thou-
sands. They generally migrate in winter to the country south of
the Ai-kansas. * * AVhci'ever a buffalo path is found

in a mountainous or hilly coimtry, it is a sure guide for the
most j)racticablc way of crossing the mountains."* He further says,
and this is the important part — '• The bison is but a varietij of the
European ox;'^ [what Dr. ()ril[)in would perhaps call the original
type;"] " and the mixed breed will again propagate. As doubts
have lately been raised upon that point, I must say that the mixed
breed was quite conunon fifty years ago in some of the north
western counties of Virginia ; (ind that the cows the issue of that
mixture jiropagated like all others. JVo attempt that I know of,
was ever made by the inhabitants to tame a buffalo of full growth.
But calves were occasionally caught by the dogs and brought alive
into the settlements. A bull thus raised was for a number of years

* This is also known of the European ox in our own latitude.

T'if

THE ANTIQUITY OF :\IAN IN AMKKICA.

(I i

owned in my inmudiiite vicinity by ii farmer livinji; on the Monon-
•^alielii, a(l joining; Afason and Dixon's Tiine. lie was permitted to
roam at lar<:;e, and was no more danj^erous to man than any hull of"
tlie oonunon s[)eeies. But to them he was formidable, and would
not suffer any to a|)])roaeh within two or three miles of his own
ranu'e. Most of the cows I knew were descended from him. For
want of a fresh supply of the wild animal, they have now mer<»;ed
into the eonunon kind. They were no favourites, as they yiehled
less milk. The superior size and streni>th of the bufliilo, mi^ht
have imi)roved the breed of >xen for draught : but this was not
attended to, horses beini>' almost exclusively eiii|)loyed in that
quarter for ai;ricultn»"al purposes." Mr. ( fallatiii draws no ethno-
logical influence from these facts coucernintj the American bison.
Messrs. Nott, Giiddon and Aj^'assiz would probably deem them
t;) be a distinct creation, as well as the red man. An ar«;"iunent of
a contrary nature, may howxncr be hazarded. The inference I
would draw from the numerous herds, estimated at seven millions
stroni;, that now run wild over the Xorth American prairi<'s, where
they find climate and herbage suited to their fullest development,
may just amount to nothiufj!;, but, it is neither impossible nor
im))robal)le. The wild bison, ap[)arently uutameable, may be the
lineal descendant of the domestic cattle of the extremely ancient
cultivators of the banks of the Ohio, the Missouri and the idissis-
sipi)i — of the folded herds on which they dependc(l for sustenance
and labour. The barbaric irruptions which (pienched this demi-
civilization, may have been prompted by its bovine wealth; and
may have destroyed and fed u\nm the captured herds. There would
be nothinji" sur[)rising in the indefinite nudti{)lication of those which
escaped and became wild, or in their intractable nature, worried and
hunted as they have been for thousands of years. There was
nothing;' in the condition or state of the Indian races before the
advent of the Kuro[)eans, that could have prevented that nudtipli-
cation. The hunter afoot, with spear, bow and arrows, may
occasionally have surprise<l and killed a few of the herd, and some
may now and then have been tra})j)ed ; but they nmst have been
too wary to have suffered any sensible diminution from the arts of
savage circumvention, and rather despised them. On the con-
trary there is strong proof that from a central region and confined

SOI
Si)

sol

dig

ric

tha

to ;

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN A]MP:UirA.

not

that

lino-

ison.

them

Mlt of

nee 1

Hiou?

when'

luent,

c nor

be the

ncicut
it*sis-
nanee
hnni-
aud
would
whieh
1 and
' wat*
•e the
idtipli-
niay
some
been
arts of
le eon-
onfined

area they had inereased botli in numbers and o'eoijraphical Hmits,
north and south, east and west, up to the tin\e of the Kuro|n':in
discovery. I'hey then ranijed the Missouri j>rairies from the lifty-
Hftli (h'urce of latitude to the sonreos of tiie rivers that empty into
the (Juif of ^^exi('o, bctweeti the Mississippi and the l\io Norte.
They had penetrated down the Ivio Coh>ra(h>, of (^iliH rnia, as I'ar
south as the forlieth d(\'4Tee of hititu(h', and Lewis' Ri\i'r, a southern
branch of the (\)huubia,as far west as the out ' uh'ed and fiftecntli
(h'LTrce of htny'Itude. Towards the e".s jiey .ad crossed tlie ^Ti-sis-
sip])i, and before they were driven away oy the American scttk^-
ments, they had ascenck'd the vaHev of the Ohio within 100 niih's
of Pittsbiu'i!:, and tliat of the 'l\'nnessee to its sources. '^ it bi'0:ime
a diif'erent atl'air, however, wlien the !j:un was i)laeed in llie rndiairs
hands, and he was mounted on horsebaek. From that time we may
dixto the declension of the bisons : and it is no louLjcr difHcalt to
proi»hesy the pei-iod of their total extinction, whicli will ])roI)al)ly be
a ecnturv or two before the same fate befalls the red man himself.
This is rathei- a di!j;res>i()n, aithou<;h I deem it an interestiuLT one,
and in some dci^'ree corroborative of facts which assist the conclusions
to which these ati'ricultural observ ations tend. The moiuids and other
remains attest a population that did not altoijether d(>[)end u|)on
animal food for their sustenanee. Whatever were their means of
sn'^port, or extent of civilizatit)n, they were destroyed by ii'ruj)ti(ms
o*^* barbarous tribes, who did not sueceed them as })ernianent resi-
dents, and soon lost all recollection of the events by which the
settled [)eoplc were expelled or destroyed. The bisons, however,
nnist have remained. In the lonj^- process ofau'cs, the aurieulture
and civilization of Mexico, which probably restdted fntm the retreat
southwards of the cultivators made an impression ayain upon these
reu'Ioir-, and the |)resent race of Indians aeipiired from them Just
so nmch knowledn'e as tlu\v now [)ossess of the cultivation ot" the
soil, which tlu; men who eonsideivd the occupation beneath tliciir
diijnity, connnitted to the women. The culti\ation found in Ame-
ric:i at its modern diseovery, whether recent or proceedini^ from
that which was ancient, does not show either tlu> orij^In or desC'.iit
of the race who practised it ; and oidy carries back their anti(|nity
to a j)eriod when they had lon<>' iidiabited the eoimtry, and w hoa

* (iullatin.

m I'r

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

the increase of population and the spontaneous fertility of the soil,
and the newly found value of the maize as an article of food, had
somewhat lessened the previous entire dependence upon the chase,
and introduced and encouraged a nascent civilization. *

EVIDENCE DERIVED FROM AUCIIITECTURAL REMAINS AND

ETYMOLOGIES.

There is a wide field for speculation in view of the information
communicated of late years, connected with the remains and ruins
of an apparent civilization that once existed and was overthrown
in the central parts, if not on some of the northern rivers of this
continent. We have shown that the wildest conclusions have been
liazarded, which follows from allowing the mind to wander from
})rol)abilities to a belief in the impracticable. Tlie architectural and
other remains of the Mexican and Peruvian nations, are deserving
of a*" ntion as attesting to the originality of conception, the settled
condition, and the progress in art and science which distinguished
them. The massive construction, and the excellent workmansliij)
of Egyptian and Indian architecture, are present ; but the design,
except as betokening a certain sameness of ideas in the human mind,
which mavbe stvled the instinct of art, is neither African, Asian, nor
European. The form of the principal structures and mounds, the
})icture writings, which however are not hieroglyphics, the progress
in astronomy, the worship of the sun and moon, have carried con-
viction to some minds that the ancient Pjgyptians or Assyrians were
concerned in teaching the Americans what they knew of art, science
und religion. If I could bring myself to suppose that these were of
foreign instigation, I might be led to believe that they had some

* " The country over wliidi nn imperfect aboriginal cultivation extended, is
said to be tliat which is bounded on the east by the Atlantic; on the south l)y the
Gulf of Mexico ; on the west generally by the Mississippi, or perhaps more properly
by the prairies; on the north the boundary of cultivation was near the Atlantic,
and included the Kennebec River and prol)ably the Penobscot. [There is no evi-
dence that it extended to Nova Scotia, although maize in some seasons produces
largely, and is every year an average crop.] With the exception of the Ilurons and
other kindred tribes on the northern shores of Lake Eric, there was no cultivation
north of the great lakes, nor does there appear to have been any among the Chip-
pewas, 'vho occupied the country along the northern border of Lake Su])erior.
They and the Menomonies depended for vegetable food principally, if not alto-
gether on the wild rice, or wild oats as the plant is called. Tlie few tribes west of
the Mississippi, whicii attend at all to agriculture, as well as tliose which extend
thence to the Pacific, dcive their principal mcivns of subsistence, cither from the
b'lffalo, or from roots and fish." — Gallatin.

an(
oar
shij

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

I, nor
, the
irre?s
con-
is were
science
r'cre of
some

nded, is
by the
properly
Atlantic,
9 no evi-
producc'S
rons and
lUivation
he Chip-
uperior.
not alto-
s west of
•h extend
from the

connection with an ancient Egyptian or Asian advent to this particu-
lar portion of the continent. There arc certainly some coincidences
which must appear remarkahle. They are limited to the central
portions of America, and to Peru. The observations of Hum-
boldt previously quoted, with reference to the names of Chimbo-
razo and other mountains of Peru, that they had no significance in
the language of the Incas, have some importance when it is known
that there was a city of Chemmis' in Kgypt * — which may mean,
the city of Ham ; that the original name of the Egyptian nation
was Cham or Ohimmi (progeny of Ham) ; that one of the moun-
tains of Central Asia, where the ark is said to have rested, adjacent
to a territory claimed by pliilosophers as the true centre from which
the human race spread after the Flood ; and which may have been
named, as Egypt was, after Ham, is Chhmilari. Can all this be
accidental ? Does it point to an arrival on the shores of Mexico or
Peru, of strangers from Asia and Africa, who gave a name to
Ohimhorazo, which has survived all remcmbi'ance of themselves,
and is the only memorial of their existence ; and might not such stran-
iJCers have brou<i:ht with thciu a knowledije of some of the arts of
civilized life? Further than this, we have in the names of some of
the Mexican tribes what may be a similar derivation. The Chi-
chltiiccas preceded the Aztecs in Mexico. Do some of the oldest
Indian families or tribes of the continent derive their names from the
same source ? The affix tl in many words of the vocabularies of
the Chinoohfi of the Columbia and other tribes of Xootka Sound, has
been quoted as proof of their relationship to the ^Mexican or Aztec
family. What then shall we say of their prefix, or the prefixes
and affixes of some of the oldest tribes — of the analogy of the
consonants Ch, and the syllables Che and Chi, viz., the Choctaios,
the Cherokees, the Chickasnws, as well as the batches, the Musko-
f/ees — and further north the Chippeyicans nnd the Chippeivas, and
many other tribes, as distinguished from such names as the Man-
dans, the Minetarcs, the Sioux, and other mellifluous tribal desig-
nations. The Egyptians were early acquainted with navigation,
and it is supposed explored the eastern coast of Africa at a very
early period, as afterwards most p-^obably did the Tyrians in partner-
ship with the Jews ; also the Carthaginians ; nnd all or either may

* Herodotus. — Euterpe, 9|1.

TIIK ANTIQUITY OF MAX IX A:MKUICA.

by bare pot^sibility have influenced the olvilization and the supersti-
tions that once prevailed iii)on this continent, and which antiquarians
are so anxious to ascribe to them. It is ahnost certain too, that it'
they reached the sliores of America, they wouhl not be able to find
their way back, and must have been content to make the best of the
situation, and that the discovery could therefore have availed nothini;'
so far as the eastern hemisphere was concerned. The IVFexican legend
of a great benefactor, Quetzelcoatl, whom they deemed a god, who
came amongst them, gave them laws, taught them agriculture and
caused them to live a settled life, is stroma; evidence of such an aiTival.
The departure from them of this personage, after prophesying that
strani»:ers would one dav arrive from the east to imiinrt further
knowledge, Avas perhaps an attempt to return by the way he came,
Avhich was never destined to be realized.

These are })robal)ilities and not 'impossibilities, and arc therefore
at variance with the many impi-acticablc theories started by those
who would assume for the human race on this continent a separate
creation, or an indefinite duration. I caiuiot say that T agree with
them, although })lcading all the im})t)rtancc to which thty may
be justly entitled; they come in as a ([uestionable addition to my
theory, and if they do not militate against it, do not support it. 1 do
not mvsclf allow that the foreign derivation of either the arts or the
civilization that prevailed in this continent, is })roved by such evi-
dence. That of names may be just as readily pleaded for a pre-
Noachite descent, and a native or local origin. There were —
there nuist have been othei- Ohams, Chtms and Chex, amongst the
antediluvians, long ere the sons of Noah were born ; and the tribes
of America, and some of its mountains also, may have been called
after them. AVith this idea the comiection and analogy between
an Egyptian and American civilization cease in my mind ; and
the pre-Noachite antiquity is sustained by the ])rlmcval structure of
language, and the uni(j[ue type which is characteristic of all the
works of man, and of man himself upon this continent.

Nor do I believe that the American architecture is of very high
antiquity. Com})aring the ancient remains of Asia, Africa and
Europe with those of America, it maybe a fjur way of dealing
with them, to calculate their age by the effects which time has
produced upon them. Those of Nineveh, Babylon, Egypt and

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

n-cfore

those
paratc
e with
\' may

to my
I do
»• the

I cvi-

i pvc-

("VC —

o-st the
tribes
called

'tween
; and

tare of

all the

high

u-a and

dealing

line has

rpt and

Jerusalem, with some striking exceptions, are buried at a consider-
able depth under gr(jund, and the excavations to reach them arc
exceedingly tr()ul>lesome. The traditions of antiquity and history
had long been examined in vain for traces of some of the most rc-
markal)le of these ruins ; and it is only in their recent exhumations
iu the East that mankind is beginning to read the history of the
past. The relics of the ancient cities and temples of ^Vmerica are
upon the surface, sometimes covered with trees and vegetaticm,
but none are buried dee[)ly under ground. That many of them
are of great age, and their origin nidcnown, is unquestionable;
but in these respects they do not differ from the very ancient
remains of the eastern hemisphere. An inference, whether
correct or not, that I would draw from tliis comparison is,
tliat tliey are of a much more recent date, — tliat the era in
which tliey were constructed is more recent, — and that proba-
bly two thousand years would cover the civilization which then and
previously prevailed. I would take none of them to be as old as the
relics of Nineveh, the Birs Xinu'oud, or the latest of the Egyptian
pyramids, — that in fact, when tlie Sj)aniard arrived in ^Mexico,
wlvether Ii> civilization had or had not been affected bv tliat of the
eastern hemis[)here, it was still the same as it had been, progressive
perha[)s, but j)erpctuating usages and custcmis, and producing the
same architectural forms. AVith regard to the antiquities of the
United States, Schoolcraft, than whom no one had more ample op-
])ortunities of judging, asserts, that " they are the anti(piities of bar-
barism, and not of ancient civilization. Mere age they undoubted-
ly have ; but when we look about our magnificent forests and valleys
for ancient relics of the traces of the plough, tlie compass, the pen and
the chisel, it must require a heated imagination to perceive nnich if
anjthing at all beyond the iiunter state of arts, as it existed at the
res])ective eras of tiie Scandinavian and Columbian discoveries."

Living as we do in a country which at one time the *•' Souri-
((uois"* or Micmac tribe of Indians possessed and roamed and
hunted throui^h its length and breadth, extendin": themselves
to Cape lireton, P. K. Island, and the south-western coast of
Newfoundland, it may not be out of place to advert shortly to
what is known of their state Avhen Acadia was first visited by

* The proper tribal name of the Nova Scotian aborigines.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IX AMERICA.

Europeans. Tlie country itself .afforded no evidence whatever, of
any prior occupation by a complete or demi-civilization ; and
appears to have been almost the last portion of the Continent
inhabited by the American race ; as it was also the last which the
civilization of Europe deemed worthy of settlement. This is true,
but a strikinf^ contrast to its present growing importance in natural
resources, and as the gi'eat thoroughfare through which must pass
at no distant day the commerce of Europe, Asia and America.
The Micmac is an offshoot of the Algonkin family, and a true type of
the North American race. The Algonkins are the most ancient,
and are still the most numerous of the North American nations.
This Lenape family, divided into numerous tribes, often warring
against each other, extended from the source of the Missinippi
River to Hudson's Bay, crossing which their boundary went west-
wardly through Labrador to the extreme boundary of the Labrador
P^squimaux on the north shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence ;
thence hy the Atlantic Ocean and including Cape Breton and the
S. W. coast of Newfoundland to Cape Ilatteras ; thence by a
westerly line to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississip])i ; thence
to the source of that river ; thence the Red River of Lake Winnepeg
down to that Lake ; thence by a northerly line to the Missinippi.
The Algonkin has always been a compound of the hunter and
fisher, living near to the great lakes and rivers, or in countries
bordering the Atlantic. The fashioning and construction of his
canoe, Avhicli under his management is able to ride out a gale, but
guided by an P]uropean would upset in a calm, is a most artistic
piece of aboriginal naval architecture. There is no evidence
whatever that he ever settled down to a civilized life. He may
have come after and made war upon more southern tribes ; and his
ancestors may have been of those who helped to destroy the ancient
settlements and demi-civilization of the Ohio and Mississippi val-
leys ; but if so he profited little by the example at home, although
he may have learnt some of their arts by the contact. Thus, in
several of the Algonkin tribes maize was cultivated ; copper

♦ Missinippi is an Algonkin word, signifying " tlie gatlicring of the whole
waters." Mississippi is another Algonkin word signifying "the collection of a//
the rivers," — a palpable distinction, but showing the wide extension of the family.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

whole

m of all

fiimily.

was known and used* in all the tribes ; and all of them had the art of
making a rude pottery, which they ornamented with small cubes of
iron ])yrites. They clothed themselves with skins of beavers, moose,
&c., and made boxes, baskets and purses, which they ornamented
with porcu})ine quills, and dyed of various colours. The cultivation
of maize had not however extended to the Micmacs, although they
knew the value of some indigenous roots, especially the sa-ga-ban,
or Indian potatoc. Neither has there ever been found any burial
moiuids in this Province. They mourned their dead with loud
lamentations, and buried them in graves dug in the earth. Their
religious or rather superstitious observances, so far as known,
coincided with those of all the other branches of the family, and
generally with all the families of the North. Their language is an
Algonkin dialect, which was very well imderstood by the Algonkins
of Canada, and it would seem that the varicjus tribes could converse
with each other without difficulty. They were sometimes at war
with their neighbours and scal})ed their enemies, of whom the
Mohawks or Iroquois were the most dreaded. As the forests were
plentifully inhabited by the moose, carriboo and bear, the wolf, (for
there were wolves when the French made their settlement at
Annapolis,) the lynx, the raccoon, the fox and the hare; and the
inland waters by the beaver, the otter, and smaller animals ; while
the rivers and sea coast })rovided fowl and fish and mollusks, the
Micmac must have been the best fed and clothed of any portit)n of
the Indian race, and was fast increasing in numbers. But he
affords no conclusive evidence of the antiquity of the Ame-
rican man. We find his bones, and his weapons buried with
him, in Indian graves ; and in the KjoclcenmiJdding^ (adopting
the name of the Danish antiquaries,) on the shores of some of
the bays and harbours, are relics of pottery made of a coarse clay
which had withstood the fire, stone axes, spear heads, and arrow
heads, bone needles or piercers, mingled with shells (jf the quhog
{vemis mercenaria) , clam {mya urenaria) , all recent ; and bones of
the moose, bear, porcu[)ine, beaver, &c., (all existing species), the
large bones split for the sake of the marrow, and not yet fossilized,

* Mcmbertou, Sagamore of the Souriquois, made a pretence of giving to De-
Monts for the King of France, Henry IV. what he called his copper mine, sup-
posed to be Cape D'Or.

rfi' n

THE ANTIQUrrV OF MAN" IN AifEUlCA.

M 1,

:;,

all of wliicli animals he liunted, ate, and appropriated their furs to
make his own eh)thin_2; ; and at length traded them with Frenehmen
who came from thejxrcat river of C^anada, (the St. Lawrence,) with
that object.* It is to be ho])ed, that when we have a l*rovincial
Museum, a general collection of all such relics will be made and
deposited therein, in order that the recollection of the stone age in
Xova Scotia, distinct from the age of civilization, which last may
date about 2(50 vears back, shall not be forgotten or lost, fludging
from the absence of all attempt at cultivation, for which in fact*
there was no necessity, and that the Micmac built no mounds, and
had nr) pictorial writing, and that his remains as found are of com-
paratively recent date, I would not feel justitied in fixing his
occupation of Xova Scotia, at a much earlier j)eriod than five (U* six
hundred years since. Yet when the French first came to the coun-
try, the Micmac had no kni>wledge and no ti-aditio)i (^f the past
history of his own family, although he used iroji im})lements
introduced from Canada, whi<'h country was a |)rior discovery.
DeMonts and Poutrincourt, who arrived in Xew France, (Xova
Scotia,) March l()()4f and coasting west at length came to Anna-
])i»lis or Digby basin, which they named Port lioyal, and sailing up
the river formed a settlement, found them a simple minded, intel-
ligent race, somewhat superstitious, good specimens physically of
the human family, well made, tall and stout savages, with ])erhaps as
little of vice in their com[)osition as was over inherited by humanity.
For any change in their persons and character in these resj)ects, they
are indebted to their intercourse with the imjxtrted civilization of
Europe. They have adopte<l l)ut i'cw of its im])rovements, and it
has never sat well upon them, added to their comforts, or increased
their prosperity. IJut whatever may be alleged against them, it
is still evident that a sense of injustice and wrong prompted their
enmities, and that they were ever " more sinned against than sin-
ninu'." Thev mav have numbered several thousands on the uenin-
sula when the Frenchmen arrived; and if v/e count them now at
seven or eight hundred souls, all told, it will show the rate of

* All these were louinl in explorinir one of their refuse heaps at St. MarLr.iret's
Bay, liy the Nova Sc(;tian Institute ol" Natural Science 0>n one of their Field Days
a few years since,) and recorded hy the writer in the inililished "Transactions."

t LesCarbot who wrote a history of LaCadia or New France, arrived tlie
succeeding year.

TFIK AXTIQirTY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

luity.
tlicv
n of
id it
"■ised
n, it
ihoir
-in-
)enin-
>w at
ite of

(l Diivs
ins.'"
.'d the

(Iccvca.'i'e, nnd jrivc some idea of the influenco upon tlicin of the
manners and customs of tlio eastern world.

SUMAFAKY OF THE AKOIMKXTS, A\J> C(JNCLU.SION.

A fair interpretation of tlie Book of Xature, as opened to us
in the colour and laniruaiic of the Amencan race ; the ji^eoloijical
possiI)ilities and ])rol)al)iliti(>s tliat may lia\(' affected facilities of
couununication with the eastern liemispheie ; the structure of
language and aftinlties of dialects ; the relics of human occupa-
tion as exhibited in tlie singidar mounds and other evidences of a
nascent civilization and settled conununities in the north extend-
inii' fi-om the ]Mississi])pi to the Ohio; — the original designs of
their architectural aiiti(|uitic;-, and the progressive civilization of
iMexico and Peru. — wr.i'i-ant the conclusion, that the American
family of men is unirpie, descended from the same stock hut
distinct from all the races of the eastern h(>!nisj)]iere, and of pre-
cxistent antiquity. Unless we choose to hjok for that anti(|uity in
the vagaries of those v,ho assinne several centres of creation, we
nmst try and find it in the V^olume of inspiration, — and in the
history, which very many believe to have been communicated by
God liimself to ^Foses ; although there is no I'eason whatever why
it may not have been handed down by tradition and j)icture writing",
and hieroglvi)hs, throuii'h the succccdinu' iicnerations from Adam
to Moses. Unless, I say, we can find a coincidence between that
Volume and the book of Xature alluded to, I fear that all attem])ts
to trace the origin of man upon this continent, may be deenied
hopeless. I believe this c;in be found. If the evidence laid before
you, which is but a small ])ortiou of what could be ])roduced, is
sufficient to jirove his antiquity, it remains to find a valid reason,
supposing the Xoachian deluge to have destroyed th<> human
family in Asia, why the human family of .Vmcrica shoidd have
been preserved. Nothing short of this, I am jiersuadcd. Avould
satisfv anv religious mind, firndy Ix'lieving that the world, and all
that was thci'cin of iuiimal life, was destroyed by a fiood. It is to
this im[)ortant ])ait of the subject that T sliall shortly advei-t, stating
the ground upon which I rest my argument, which assumes the
unknown from the known, by induction carried back to the time of

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMEHICA.

the first peopling of Ainerica, .and rcdting for corroboration on
the attributes of the justice and mercy of the Ahnighty.

The great difficulty with ])hilos()phers in fixing the time of man's*
first appearance in America, is the Noachian deluge. Either they
have tried t(j .account for his advent after that event, which does not
afford a sufficient anticpiity , or any reasonable proof ; or going beyond
it, have assumed for him a })re-Adamite age. Had they looked
for that appearance to an intermediate time between the Creation and
the Noachian deluge, they might have been able to account for it in-
dependent of that cataclysm. Gallatin, whom I have alluded to, who
while obliged to claim for the race the hif/hesf possible antiquity, is
fettered by the Noachian event, ])laces the first arrivals " after the
dispersion," the evidence being the unity of the structure of the
language throughout the continent ; and then enters upon a calcula-
tion based upon thirty j)eriods of duplication of three couples, that
probably admits of no allowance for depopulation by wars, pesti-
lence and other contingencies, to show that America began to be
inhabited onlv five or six hundred vears later than the other hemis-
phere — this passage being so far obscure that it is difficult to tell
whether he means after Adam or Noah. Schoolcraft also is evi-
dently hampered by a similar difficulty, and gets over it very clum-
sily. He says " Considered in every point of view the Indian race
appears to be of an old — a very old stock. Nothing that we have
in the shape of books is ancient enough to recall the period of his
origin but the sacred or.acles." He considers that if we aj)peal to
these, " a probable prototype may be recognized in that branch of
the race which m.ay be called Almogic, from Almod.ad the son of
fFoktan," of whom indeed I can find nothing recorded except that
"Joktan begat Almoda<l and his eleven brothers, and that their
dwelling was from Mesha as thou goest unto 8ej)har, a mount
of the East." *

The Old Testament is a reliable book of history ; and the only
reasonable authority extant when we look back upon the origin of
mankind, and their progress in knowledge, civilization and refine-
ment. From that we learn that at his creation man was in
intimate connnunion with his ]\Iaker. For some time after the
Fall, and when he began to multiply, he knew God. In the days

* Genesis chap. v.

r<
hi

THE ANTIQUITY OF »IAN IN AMERICA.

I •

only
nn oi
fefine-
las in
tr the
days

of Knos, we are told " then be^^an men to call upon the Lord."
The earth at that time was not corrupt and wicked, nor did it so
heconie before the time of Enoch, who himself " walked ^vith (iod."
Sui)pose that a jjortion of the human family, after devious wander-
ings, had about that time reached this continent, they would have
been of the pure Adamic stock ; have brouf^ht Avith them the wor-
shij) of the true God in its purest form ; the original structure of
language ; and as nuich idea of the arts as then existed in the
country from which they had come out : but they would not have
l)een known to Noah or to the wicked race who were destroyed.
Let us now turn to the American Indian as he fint became
known to Europeans, and we shall see that he fulfils the conditions
of such a people.

The moral and religious character of the wild Indian of North-
ern America, as he appeared to the modern discoverers, with all
the superstitions that thousands of years had grafted upon it, does
not suffer by comparis<jn with that of the races of the Efwtern hem-
isphere. Except as regards the manifestation of the Son of God,
his religion was probably as pure a theism as was that of the
Jews. This then was his normal condition. AVe may not however
deny that idolatrous practices were found in the central parts of
America, for which it is not easy to account, except from the
natural proneness of man, (as evinced also in the eastern hemis-
phere,) to embody his own conceptions of Omnipotence, and to
worship God by bestowing divine honour upon the works of His
hands; or that it was of foreign origin. The Mexicans, and fur-
ther south the Peruvians, adored the sun and moon with some such
mental reservation, and the former added to this iniquity the sacri-
fice of human beings. In like nuumer a few of the more north
ern tribes partook of this idolatrous influence. None of them,
however, lost the transcendant idea of a Supreme Being, to
whom all others were subordinate. They believed in the im-
mortality of the soul, in a good and evil principle, in a future
reward for the virtuous and punishment for the wicked. The deep
impression on their minds of these fundamental truths does not
warrant us in believing that their idolatry had been of very long
continuance, but the contrary. In the eastern continent the wor-
ship of strange gods may be said to have commenced with the

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA.

iinincdiiitc doaccndantH of Noah, and may tlierefore have been hilcnt
in liiK family. It early accinired titrcn<;th and overlaid a ti-iic con-
eeption of tlu; Almii,dity, in Nineveh, E;;ypt, and Babylon ; and
had j)rol)al)ly originated, eulminated and been destroyed in the
eastern world, luifore it bei^an npon thin eontinent. ^^'e may
therefore certainly infer, that at the dis<eovery of America, save the
idolatry of Mexico and Pern, whicli 8o many believe to have been
imported, the race npon this continent, like the flewH, did pret-erve
the pm'e worship of (}od from the remote [)eriod of their inmii^ration
bcfcn-e it had been coi-rnpted in the old world, lon^ snbsecpient to
the date assii^nied for the Xoachian dehiije, and probably to within
the Christian era.

Alany authors who ha\e written on the .Vmerican aborigines,
have alluded to their tradition of a deln^^^c, from which few escaped,
to })rove thereby that they were descendants of Noah. This tradi-
tion as it is supposed to refer to the scriptural event, is not of nuich
wcii;ht, and oui^ht to be received with caution, in determining the
antiquity of the race. Much of it may have oriuinated in the
tcachinji; of Kuro])eans, who brought with them the Mosaic accoimt
of the deluj^e, jxtiutini^' to the proofs of convulsions on every hand
as confirmative evidence. The aboriirines themselves have little or
no tradition which points to deludes occurrin<i' beyond their owji
confines : and the f2;eolo^dcal conformation of the conntry, the
terraces on the rivers, and the visible volcanic and other natural
disturbances, carry conviction of the fact that there must have been
inundations and submergences of land on this continent at ])eriods
w^ithin the human chronology. ? .he tradition so univei-sal as

is generally supposed, althou ' iains with some of the tribes

whose ancestors may have ' oject to such visitations.

Again, the idolatry of M^.vico and Peru may be said to Iiave
acquired its greatest strength at or about the time of the European
discovery of those countries. It was limited within well defined
areas, and its influence had not yet spread to any wide extent
beyond those common centres. It w^as an idolatry similar to that
of ancient Assyria and Persia combined, Avhich existed some thou-
sand years previous. In Europe or Asia, at the time of the dis-
covery of America, there was no such religious worship. It had
nothing in common with the superstitions of the African trJies of

^ •

TlIK ANTIQl'ITV OF MAX IN AMKKK.'A.

t • l»^

;ivc
|)ean
iucd
llent
that
lioii-

had

\s of

4k>

nuMi. liiit tlio finidiiinontiil Ix'licf, cvoii sonic ot' tlu; nistoniH akin
to those of tlu! ffcvvs, which may have hcon transmitted from
Adam, wei-e ^a'lierally remai'ked, and remained to show that the
fire worsliip, adoration of the snn and moon, and idol worsliij), had
l)een engrafted on the trne worship of (lod. This i(h»hitry, it is
just to infer, wonhl have n^rown <;ra(hially from priestcraft, and an
assunijjtion of snjternatnral powers hy a priviU?<^cd elasH amon<;'st
|an iuiiorant pe(H)k', always ready to evolve the su[)crnatnral out of
natin-al phenomena ; and may therefore have been, as 1 believe it
was, indiivencnis.

'i'he idea that the American ra<'(! were idolatrous from the
l)ei;iniiin_L!; cannot be entertained for a moment. The sui)erstiti()uw
observances which amoufj the more northern families, clouded a
true conce])ti()n of the Deity, evidently were ])ro<hiced from lh(>Ir
mode of life, and peculiar habits, lonii- jifter they had miihiplied in
the land. If this be so then, we may not believe that ihcy were
(corrupt at the time of Xoah ; or that it consisted with Divine
justice and mercy that the people of this e^)ntinent should ha\(' been
destroyed in the overthrow of the un^nxlly.

Amomjst the many hypotheses' and theories Avhich ha\e been
hazarded to acconnt for the peopling- of .\merica, there is none in
which the evidence, althouirh circumstantial, is so safe, as that
which points to the appearance of man u[)on this continent at a
period intermediate betw(>en the assumed date of the (^reation and
that of the Xoachian Delude. That period will afford a siiHicient
time for all the various phenomena connected with the race, which I
have ])rcvionsly described. If we f,a'ant that the continent may
have been or was so peo|)led, all the various phenomena connected
with the j)ro<^ress of the American race up to the ]»ei'iod of the
Euro]iean discovery, follow in their natural ordm-. The fact as I
view it, neither conflicts with the eoiidition and })rojri-ess of man-
kind, as these are rccoi'ded before the Noachian flood, nor with the
demand that Christianity makes upon the common salvation. It
would be well, I think, if this belief were so firmly establi.-^hed as
to be generally received, and so to supplant or supersede the vari-
ous speculations that perj)lex men's minds, and lead astray from a
true conception of the Avise and beneficent designs of the (creator of
mankind. Should this paper lead to further enquiry which may
contribute to such an end, I shall be amply rewarded.

•^

* ^

i«