CHAPTER II. ORIGIN, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, ETC. HE origin of the North American Indians, is a subject which has engrossed the attention of learned men for over two hundred years, and yet the question, "By whom was America peopled?" remains without satisfactory answer. In 1637, Thomas Morton wrote a book to prove that the Indians were of Latin origin. John Joselyn held, in 1638, that they were of Tartar descent. Cotton Mather inclined to the opinion that they were Scythians. James Adair seems to have been fully convinced that they were descendants of the Israelites, the lost tribes; and, after thirty years residence among them, published in 1775, an account of their manners and customs, from which he deduced his conclusions. Dr. Mitchill, after considerable investigation, concluded "that the three races, Malays, Tartars and Scandinavians, contributed to made up the great American population, who were the authors of the various works and antiquities found on the continent." DeWitt Clinton held, that "the probability is, that America was peopled from various quarters of the old world, and that its predominant race is the Scythian or Tartarian." Calmet, a distinguished author, brings "Observations and arguments in proof of the American Indians being descended from the Jews: 1. Their division into tribes. 2. Their worship of Jehovah. 3. Their notion of a theocracy. 4. Their belief in the ministration of angels. 5. Their language and dialects. 6. Their manner of counting time. 7. Their prophets and high priests. 8. Their festivals, fasts and religious rites. 9. Their daily sacrifice. 10. Their ablutions and anointings. II. Their laws of uncleanness. 12. Their abstinence from unclean things. 13. Their marriages, divorces, and punishments of adultery. 14. Their several punishments 15. Their cities of forward the writings of Hornius, son of Theodosius the Great, who affirms that "at or about the time of the commencement of the Christian era, voyages from Africa and Spain into the Atlantic ocean were both frequent and celebrated;" and holds that "there is strong probability that the Romans and Carthagenians, even 300 B. C., were well acquainted with the existence of this country," adding that there are "tokens of the presence of the Greeks, Romans, Persians, and Carthagenians, in many parts of the continent." The story of Madoc's voyage to America, in 1170, has been repeated by every writer upon the subject, and actual traces of Welsh colonization are affirmed to have been discovered in the language and customs of a tribe of Indians living on the Missouri. Then the fact is stated that "America was visited by some Norwegians," who made a settlement in Greenland, in the tenth century. Priest, in his American Antiquities, states that his observations had led him "to the conclusion that the two great continents, Asia and America, were peopled by similar races of men.” It is not necessary to add to this catalogue. Men equally learned with those whose opinions have been quoted, see no obstacle in the way of an opinion that America received her population as she did her peculiar trees, and plants, and animals, and birds. The geologist examines the relics of the west, and where imagination fashions artificial walls, he sees but crumbs of decaying sandstone, clinging like the remains of mortar to blocks of greenstone that rested on it; discovers in parallel intrenchments a trough that subsiding waters have ploughed through the centre of a ridge, and explains the tessellated pavement to be but a layer of pebbles aptly joined by water; and, examining the mounds, finds them composed of different strata of earth, arranged horizontally to the very edge, and ascribes their creation to the power that shaped the globe into vales and hillocks. The mounds, it is true, may have been selected by the aborigines as the site of their dwellings, fortifications, or burial places; but the mouldering bones, from hillocks which are crowned by trees that have defied the storms of many centuries, the graves of earth from which they are dug, and the 1 1 Hitchcock. feeble fortifications that are sometimes found in their vicinity, afford no special evidence of connection with other continents.' "Among the more ancient works" of the west, says another writer,” “there is not a single edifice, nor any ruins which prove the existence, in former ages, of a building composed of imperishable materials. No fragment of a column, nor a brick, nor a single hewn stone large enough to have been incorporated into a wall, has been discovered. The only relics which remain to inflame the curiosity, are composed of earth.” To add force to this sweeping blow at the beautiful theories that have been woven, the learned Agassis disputes the idea of the unity of the races through Adam; while other writers pretty clearly demonstrate that the theory of the lost tribes of Israel has no foundation in fact. Dr. Lawrence, in his Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man, sums up the whole argument by saying that, "in comparing the barbarian nations of America with those of the eastern continent, we perceive no points of resemblance between them, in their moral institutions or in their habits, that are not apparently founded in the necessities of human life." This is apparently the reasonable conclusion of the whole matter, for to pass intelligent judgment, the aborigines of America must be taken as they were found, and not as they may have appeared after years of association with Europeans, an association necessarily producing a mingling of ancient customs with those learned from missionaries, or copied under the impulse of imitation. These early lessons were taught by men of all nations, the Dutch, the French, the Spanish, and the English, and, before their advent, by the Norwegians. It would be strange indeed, under all the circumstances, if the aborigines did not have grafted upon them some resembling features of all nations. Sir William Johnson, than whom no man had better opportunity to form a correct judgment, after considering the whole matter, concluded that all theories were defective for this reason; saying, that the Indians residing next to the English settlements had lost a great part of their traditions, and had so 1 Warren in Delafield's Antiquities. 2 Drake's Picture of Cincinnati. blended their customs with those of the Europeans as to render it "difficult if not impossible to trace their origin or discover their explication," while those further removed had nevertheless been visited by traders, and especially by French Jesuits, who had "introduced some of their own inventions which the present generation confound with their ancient customs." Until many of the nations of the old world can satisfactorily explain the origin of their own race, it is hardly worth while to endeavor to make our aborigines any further kindred with them than that the same Almighty Power called them into being and endowed them with common instincts. Verazzano, who sailed along the coast of North America in 1524, speaks of the natives whom he met in the harbor of New York, as "not differing much," from those with whom he had intercourse at other points, "being dressed out with the feathers of birds of various colors." His description being the earliest is of the most merit, for at that time they were untainted by association with Europeans. In person, he says, they were of good proportions, of middle stature, broad across the breast, strong in the arms, and well-formed. Among those who came on board his vessel were two kings more beautiful in form and stature than can possibly be described; one was about forty years old, the other about twenty-four." "They were dressed,' he continues, "in the following manner: The oldest had a deer's skin around his body, artificially wrought in damask figures, his head was without covering, his hair was tied back in various knots; around his neck he wore a large chain ornamented with many stones of different colors. The young man was similar in his general appearance." In size, he says: "they exceed us," their complexion tawny, inclining to white, their faces sharp, their hair long and black, their eyes black and sharp, their expression mild and pleasant," "greatly resembling the antique." The women, he says, were "of the same form and beauty, very graceful, of fine countenances and pleasing appearance in manners and modesty." They wore no clothing except a deer skin ornamented like those of the men." Some 1 Documentary History of New York, iv, 431. 2 Collections of the New York Historical Society, 2d Series, 1, 45. had". 'very rich lynx skins upon their arms, and various ornaments upon their heads, composed of braids of hair," which hung down upon their breasts on each side. The older and the married people, both men and women, "wore many ornaments in their ears, hanging down in the oriental manner." In disposition they were generous, "giving away" whatever they had; of their wives they were careful, always leaving them in their boats when they came on ship-board, and their general deportment was such that with them, he says, "we formed a great friendship." I Hudson's experience with them, in 1609, was somewhat different, but his references to their personal appearance are similar. "This day," he says, "many of the people came aboard, some in mantles of feathers, and some in skins of divers sorts of good furs. Some women also came to us with hemp. They had red copper tobacco pipes, and other things of copper they did wear about their necks." The Dutch historians, Wassenaar, Van der Donck, and others, agree that the natives were generally well-limbed, slender around the waist, and broad-shouldered; that they had black hair and eyes, and snow white teeth, resembling the Brazilians in color, or more especially "those people who sometimes ramble through Netherland and are called Gipsies;" were very nimble and swift of pace, and well adapted to travel on foot and to carry heavy burthens. "Generally," says one writer, "the men have no beards, some even pluck it out. They use very few words, which they previously well consider. Naturally they are quite modest and without guile, but in their way haughty enough, ready and quick witted to comprehend or learn, be it good or bad. As soldiers, they are far from being honorable, but perfidious and accomplish all their designs by treachery; they also use many stratagems to deceive their enemies, and execute by night almost all their plans that are in any way hazardous. The thirst for revenge seems innate in them; they are very pertinacious in self-defense, when they cannot escape; which, under other circumstances, they like to do; and they make little of death, when it is inevitable, and despise 1Collections of the New York Historical Society, 2d Series, 1, 46. |