world, to compare with these, now, or at any future time, and hence to construct the best evidence of the derivation of this part of the human race.*

Were it possible to achieve so vast a work,— could vocabularies and grammars be carefully formed of all the American tongues, and persons be found sufficiently skilful in all the dead and living languages of the Old World, to make such a comparison as is here recommended, the result might decide the question, in one way or the other. It would, however, require a very formidable catalogue of similar words to convince us, that the languages of this continent were derived from those of the other; and no analogies of regimen, concord, or inflection, could, in our opinion, have much weight in the scale. Philosophical grammar is equally applicable to all languages. It would, indeed, be almost an absurdity, in terms, to say, that two tongues may be formed upon principles, which materially differ from each other. Agreement, regimen, and inflection, are as essential to language, as cords and weights to a pully; and, though the modes of arrangement may, in both cases, be considerably varied, the principles must always remain the same. It would be illiberal to prejudge the efficacy of the suggested experiment; but it appears to us, that the prospect of discovery is hardly sufficient to counterbalance the difficulty of the enterprise.

*JEFF. Notes. Quer. xi.

SECTION II.

Doubtful History.-Whether the United States have been inhabited by two distinct Races of Indians?-Verazan's Voyage -De Soto's Expedition-Ribaud's-Laudoniere's-Differences between the former and present Indians-Statement of the Reasons for and against the Supposition of two distinct Races.

IT is a relief to escape from the dark and thorny questions, with which we have hitherto perplexed ourselves; even though we can only fly to such as are still involved in considerable obscurity. Some authors have supposed, that the territory, which now belongs to the United States, was originally inhabited by a half civilized people, who have been exterminated by the savages; and it must be confessed, that the differences, which may be found, between the aborigines of fifteen hundred and those of the present day, either prove, that the first were a distinct race from the last, --or that, if the last are the posterity of the first, they have suffered a process of degeneration, almost unexampled in the history of mankind.

Our earliest accounts of the aborigines are derived from the voyage of Verazan, and the travels

of De Soto; the first of which was set on foot by the French, in 1524; and the last, by the Spanish, 1538. Verazan started in the beginning of 1524; and, about the middle of March, touched the American continent, near the twenty-eighth degree of north latitude.* His first sight was a 'great store of people;' 'many of them well favoured, having black and great eyes, with a cheerful and steady look, not strong of body, yet sharp-witted, nimble, and exceeding great runners.'t Sailing to the north, he every where discovered 'mul⚫titudes of inhabitants;' and he generally uses the same language in the description of their appearance and character: they were of mean (middle) stature, handsome visage, and delicate limbs, and of very littlę strength, but of prompt wit.' In one place, he findsthem 'courteous and gentle;' and, in another, 'of sweet and pleasant countenance, imitating much the old fashion.' 'The women,' he says, 'were very handsome and well favoured, of pleasant countenance, and comely to behold;' as well mannered and continent as any women, and of good education.' The men, moreover; were 'very jealous' of their wives; and would never suffer them to come within two hundred paces of the shore.

6

*

A traveller of the present day would find scarcely any of these traits in the character of our Indians. They are by no means remarkable for sweetness of countenance, delicacy of limbs, or gentleness of man- · ners. They are a tall, muscular, fierce looking people; who put all their drudgery upon their squaws; and, holding them in little estimation, never think it worth while to guard against their infidelity. Jealousy, indeed, is the offspring of civilization. When men begin to have some pleasures besides war and the chase, and other standards of excellence than strength and courage, female virtue finds its proper level, and

women, from servants, become wives.

Nor are these the only particulars, in which the accounts of a modern traveller would differ from those of Verazan. The natives, according to the latter, were, in part, an agricultural people. Their principal food consisted of beans and corn; though, for a change, they occasionally took beasts, birds, and fish.* They prepared the ground, by digging it up with a sort of wooden spade; and observed in their sowing,' we are told, the course of the moon and the rising of certain stars.' They even might be said to cultivate the vine. 'Having oftentimes seen the fruit thereof dried,' says

* HACKLUYT'S Voyages, vol. iii. p. 290. According to Laudoniere, their hunting months were January, February, and March. Ibid. p. 341. † Ibid. pp. 224. 299.

Verazan, which was sweet and pleasant, and not differing from ours, we think that they esteem the same, because that in every place where they grow, they take away the under branches growing round about, that the fruit thereof may ripen the better.*

This navigator followed nearly the whole coast of the present United States; but he stayed at no place long enough to explore the interior; and his accounts of the natives are necessarily brief and imperfect. De Soto, on the contrary, spent more than four years in making a progress through his dominions, as president of Florida; and the history of his enterprise contains, perhaps, the only notices, in any detail, of the character, habits, and general economy of the earlier aborigines. The book appears to be little

HACKLUYT's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 297.

†This name,-derived from Pascha Florida, or Palm-Sunday, because the land was discovered on that day,—then included an indefinite extent of territory, north and west of the present Floridas. HACK. vol. iii. p. 305.

We have never seen this book in the original; and we have heard, that no great pains were taken to make it generally known. In 1609, when the English began to think of planting colonies here, Hackluyt procured a copy, and turned it into English, under the title of 'Virginia richly valued, by the description of the maine land of Florida, her next neighbour: out of the four yeeres continuall travell and discouerie for above one thousand miles east and west, of DoN FERDINANDO DE SOTO, and six hundred able men in his companie. Wherein are truly observed the riches and fertilitie of those parts, abounding with things necessarie, pleasant, and profitable for the life of man: with the natures and dispositions of the inhabitants. Written by a Portugall gentleman of Eluas, emploied in all