tries of the north, and the south, and the west, then received these allotted portions of the human family—and the vast face of Asia became straightway peopled by the scattered multitude—why should it be doubted, that the varied countries of the extreme east also lay open to the millions emigrating from the common cradle of the second race of man on the plains of Shinar? It has been strongly contested, that the deeper we pry into the history and habits, languages and institutions of the American people, the less reason we discover to believe that they are descended from any particular people of the Old World: at the same time that a search into their early traditions and religious superstitions appears to prove, with undoubted certainty, that a connection once existed between them and the mass of mankind, and that, whenever and however isolated, there can be no doubt, from the great analogies existing between them, of their having a common origin and early history.
The various hypotheses started again and again, attempting to trace the origin of the American aborigines to any particular people of the old continent,[1] whether Jew or gentile, have all hitherto failed in carrying conviction to the minds of the world in general; and it must be admitted that many of the arguments made use of to bolster up these theories, have only proved the ignorance of their advocates to the true sources of the institutions of pagan idolatry throughout the globe. Wherever you direct your attention, to the barbarous tribes of the north and south, or the demi-civilized people of the central portions of the continent on both sides of the isthmus, you
- ↑ How far those may be in the right who would prove that the kingdoms of Mexico and Peru were founded by the troops sent by the Khan of Tartary, towards the close of the thirteenth century, to subdue Japan; that Mango Capac, the first inca of Peru, was the son of Kublai, the grandson of the Mogul conqueror, Genghis Khan; and that the ancestor of Montezuma was a Mogul grandee in his train, I am in nowise able to determine: but it is certainly a most singular circumstance, that suddenly, about that epoch, these two great powers sprung up simultaneously in different parts of the continent, and grew and increased, and were in the end annihilated by the Spaniards, without having had any connection, or being known of one another, as far as can be ascertained.
