CHAP. II.] ON THE ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS. 9 He says, "It should not pass without remark, that three most memorable things which have borne a very great aspect upon human affairs, did, near the same time, namely, at the conclusion of the fifteenth, and the beginning of the sixteenth, century, arise unto the world: the first was the Resurrection of Literature; the second was the opening of America; the third was the Reformation of Religion." Thus far we have an instructive view of the subject, calculated to lead to the conclusion that, in the dark ages, when literature was neglected and forgotten, discoveries might have been also, and hence the knowledge of America lost for a time. The reader must now summon his gravity." But," this author continues, “as probably the Devil, seducing the first inhabitants of America into it, therein aimed at the having of them and their posterity out of the sound of the silver trumpets of the gospel, then to be heard through the Roman empire. If the Devil had any expectation, that, by the peopling of America, he should utterly deprive any Europeans of the two benefits, literature and religion, which dawned upon the miserable world, (one just before, the other just after,) the first famed navigation hither, 'tis to be hoped he will be disappointed of that expectation." The learned doctor, having forgotten what he had written in his first book, or wishing to inculcate his doctrine more firmly, nearly repeats a passage which he had at first given, in a distant part of his work; but, there being considerable addition, we recite it: "The natives of the country now possessed by the Newenglanders, had been forlorn and wretched heathen ever since their first herding here; and though we know not when or how these Indians first became inhabitants of this mighty continent, yet we may guess that probably the Devil decoyed those miserable salvages hither, in hopes that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ would never come here to destroy or disturb his absolute empire over them. But our Eliot was in such ill terms with the Devil, as to alarm him with sounding the silver trumpets of heaven in his territories, and make some noble and zealous attempts towards outing him of ancient possessions here. There were, I think, 20 several nations (if I may call them so) of Indians upon that spot of ground which fell under the influence of our Three United Colonies; and our Eliot was willing to rescue as many of them as he could from that old usurping landlord of America, who is, by the wrath of God, the prince of this world." In several places he is decided in the opinion that Indians are Scythians, and is confirmed in the opinion, on meeting with this passage of Julius Caesar: "Difficilius Invenire quam interficere," which he thus renders, "It is harder to find them than to foil them." At least, this is a happy application of the passage. Casar was speaking of the Scythians, and our historian applies the passage in speaking of the sudden attacks of the Indians, and their agility in hiding themselves from pursuit.§ Doctor Mather wrote at the close of the seventeenth century, and his famous book, Magnalia Christi Americana, was published in 1702. Adair, who resided 40 years (he says) among the southern Indians, previous to 1775, published a huge quarto upon their origin, history, &c. He tortures every custom and usage into a like one of the Jews, and almost every word in their language into a Hebrew one of the same meaning. Doctor Boudinot, in his book called "The Star in the West," has followed up the theory of Adair, with such certainty, as he thinks, as that the "long lost ten tribes of Israel" are clearly identified in the American Indians. Such *This, we apprehend, is not entirely original with our author, but borders upon plagiarism. Ward, the celebrated author of the " Simple Cobler of Aggawam," says of the Irish, "These Irish (anciently called anthropophagi, man-eaters) have a tradition among them, that when the Devil showed our Saviour all the kingdoms of the earth, and their glory, that he would not show him Ireland, but reserved it for himself. It is, probably, true; for he hath kept it ever since for his own peculiar: the old fox foresaw it would eclipse the glory of all the rest: he thought it wisdom to keep the land for a Boggards for his unclean spirits employed in this hemisphere, and the people to do his son and heir (the Pope) that service for which Lewis the XI kept his Barbor Oliver, which makes them so bloodthirsty."-Simple Cobler, 86, 87. Why so much gall is poured out upon the poor Irish, we cannot satisfactorily account. The circumstance of his writing in the time of Cromwell will explain a part, if not the whole, of the enigma. He was the first minister of Ipswich, Massachusetts, but was born and died in England. t Magnalia Christ. Amer. b. i. Ibid. b. iii. See Magnalia, b. vii. 10 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS. [BOOK I. theories have gained many supporters. It is of much higher antiquity than Adair, and was treated as such visionary speculations should be by authors as far back as the historian Hubbard, who wrote about 1680, and has this among other passages: "If any observation be made of their manners and dispositions, it's easier to say from what nations they did not, than from whom they did, derive their original. Doubtless their conjecture who faney them to be descended from the ten tribes of the Israelites, carried captive by Salamaneser and Esarhaddon, hath the least show of reason of any other, there being no footsteps to be observed of their propinquity to them more than to any other of the tribes of the earth, either as to their language or manners.' This author was one of the best historians of his times; and, generally, he writes with as much discernment upon other matters as upon this. That because the natives of one country and those of another, and each unknown to the other, have some customs and practices in common, it has been urged by some, and not a few, that they must have had a common origin; but this, in our apprehension, does not necessarily follow. Who will pretend that different people, when placed under similar circumstances, will not have similar wants, and hence similar actions? that like wants will not prompt like exertions? and like causes produce not like effects? This mode of reasoning we think sufficient to show, that, although the Indians may have some customs in common with the Scythians, the Tartars, Chinese, Hindoos, Welsh, and indeed every other nation, still, the former, for any reason we can see to the contrary, have as good right to claim to themselves priority of origin as either or all of the latter. Doctor Robertson should have proved that people of color produce others of no color, and the contrary, before he said, "We know with infallible certainty, that all the human race spring from the same source," meaning Adam. He founds this broad assertion upon the false notion that, to admit any other would be an inroad upon the verity of the holy Scriptures. Now, in our view of the subject, we leave them equally inviolate in assuming a very different ground; ‡ namely, that all habitable parts of the world may have beer peopled at the same time, and by different races of men. That it is so peopled, we know: that it was so peopled as far back as we have any account, we see no reason to disbelieve. Hence, when it was not so is as futile to inquire, as it would be impossible to conceive of the annihilation of space. When a new country was discovered, much inquiry was made to ascertain from whence came the inhabitants found upon it-not even asking whence came the other animals. The answer to us is plain. Man, the other animals, trees and plants of every kind, were placed there by the supreme directing hand, which carries on every operation of nature by fixed and undeviating laws. This, it must be plain to every reader, is, at least, as reconcilable to the Bible history as the theory of Robertson, which is that of Grotius, and all those who have followed them. When it has been given in, at least by all who have thought upon the subject, that climate does not change the complexion of the human race, to hold up the idea still that all must have sprung from the same source, (Adam,) only reminds us of our grandmothers, who to this day laugh at us when we tell them that the earth is a globe. Who, we ask, will argue that the negro changes his color by living among us, or by changing his latitude? Who have ever become negroes by living in their country, or among them? Has the Indian ever changed his complexion by living in London? Do those change which adopt our manners and customs, and are surrounded by us? Until these questions can be answered in the affirmative, we discard altogether that unitarian system of peopling the world. We would indeed prefer Ovid's method:- "Ponere duritiem cœpere, suumque rigorem; * Hist. New England, 27. Metamor. lib. i. fab. xi. Hist. America, book iv. Why talk of a theory's clashing with holy writ, and say nothing of the certainty of the sciences of geography, astronomy, geology, &e. ? CHAP. II.] ON THE ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS. 11 That is, Deucalion and Pyrrha performed the office by travelling over the country and picking up stones, which, as they cast them over their heads, became young people as they struck the earth. We mean not to be understood that the exterior of the skin of people is not changed by climate, for this is very evident; but that the children of persons would be any lighter or darker, whose residence is in a climate different from that in which they were born, is what we deny, as in the former case. As astonishing as it may appear to the succinct reasoner, it is no less true, that Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith has put forth an octavo book of more than 400 pages to prove the unity, as he expresses it, of the human race,' that is, that all were originally descended from one man. His reasoning is of this tenor: "The American and European sailor reside equally at the pole, and under the equator." Then, in a triumphant air, he demands" Why then should we, without necessity, assume the hypothesis that originally there existed different species of the human kind?" What kind of argument is contained here we leave the reader to make out; and again, when he would prove that all the human family are of the same tribe, he says that negro slaves at the south, who live in white families, are gradually found to conform in features to the whites with whom they live! Astonishing! and we wonder who, if any, knew this, beside the author. Again, and we have done with our extraordi nary philosopher. He is positive that deformed or disfigured persons will, in process of time, produce offspring marked in the same way. That is, if a man practise flattening his nose, his offspring will have a flatter nose than he would have had, had his progenitor not flattened his; and so, if this offspring repeat the process, his offspring will have a less prominent nose; and so on, until the nose be driven entirely off the face! In this, certainly, our author has taken quite a roundabout way to vanquish or put to flight a nose. We wish he could tell us how many ages or generations it would take to make this formidable conquest. Now, for any reason we can see to the contrary, it would be a much less tedious business to cut off a member at once, and thus accomplish the business in a short period; for to wait several generations for a fashion seems absurd in the extreme. A man must be monstrously blind to his prejudices, to maintain a doctrine like this. As well might he argue that colts would be tailless because it has long been the practice to shorten the tails of horses, of both sexes; but we have never heard that colts' tails are in the least affected by this practice which has been performed on the horse so long. Certainly, if ever, we should think it time to discover something of it! Nor have we ever heard that a female child has ever been born with its ears bored, although its ancestors have endured the painful operation for many generations and here we shall close our examination of Mr. Smith's 400 pages. § People delight in new theories, and often hazard a tolerable reputation för the sake of exhibiting their abilities upon a subject on which they have very vague, or no clear conceptions. Had Dr. Smith read the writings of Sir Thomas Brown, he could hardly have advanced such absurd opinions as we have before noticed; if, indeed, he were possessed of a sane mind. Dr. Brown was of the age previous to that in which Buffon lived. In speaking of complexion, he says, "If the fervor of the sun were the sole cause hereof, in Ethiopia, or any land of negroes, it were also reasonable that inhabitants of the same latitude, subjected unto the same vicinity of the sun, the same diurnal arch and direction of its rays, should also partake of the same hue and complexion, which, notwithstanding, they do not. For the inhabitants of the same latitude in Asia are of a different complexion, as are the inhabitants of Cambogia and Java; insomuch that some conceive the negro is properly a native of Africa; and that those places in Asia, inhabited now by * Smith on Complexion, N. Brunswick, N. J. 1810, p. 11. + Ibid. 170, 171.. The author pleads not guilty to the charge of plagiarism; for it was not until some months after the text was written, that he knew that even this idea had occurred to any one. He has since read an extract very similar, in Dr. Lawrence's valuable Lectures on Zoology, &c. ◊ On reflection, we have thought our remarks rather pointed, as Mr. Smith is not a living author; but what called them forth must be their apology 12 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS. [BOOK I. Moors, are but the intrusions of negroes, arriving first from Africa, as we generally conceive of Madagascar, and the adjoining islands, who retain the same complexion unto this day. But this defect [of latitude upon complexion] is more remarkable in America, which, although subjected unto both the tropics, yet are not the inhabitants black between, or near, or under either: neither to the southward in Brazil, Chili, or Peru; nor yet to the northward in Hispaniola, Castilia, del Oro, or Nicaragua. And although in many parts thereof, there be at present, swarms of negroes, serving under the Spaniard, yet were they all transported from Africa, since the discovery of Columbus, and are not indigenous, or proper natives of America." * Hence it is evident, that 200 years before Dr. Smith wrote, the notion that situation of place affected materially the color of the human species, was very justly set down among the "vulgar and common errors " of the times. Another theory, almost as wild, and quite as ridiculous, respecting the animals of America, as that advanced by Dr. S. S. Smith, seems here to present itself. We have reference to the well-known assertions of Buffon and Raynal, two philosophers, who were an honor to the times of Franklin, which are, that man and other animals in America degenerate. This has been met in such a masterly manner by Mr. Jefferson, § that to repeat any thing here would be entirely out of place, since it has been so often copied into works on both sides of the Atlantic. It may even be found in some of the best English Encyclopædias. Smith ¶ does not deal fairly with a passage of Voltaire, relating to the peopling of America; as he takes only a part of a sentence to comment upon. Perhaps he thought it as much as he was capable of managing. ** The complete sentence to which we refer we translate as follows:-" There are found men and animals all over the habitable earth: who has put them upon it? We have already said, it is he who has made the grass grow in the fields; and we should be no more surprised to find in America men, than we should to find flies." We can discover no contradiction between this passage and another in a distant part of the same work; and which seems more like the passage Mr. Smith has cited:-"Some do not wish to believe that the caterpillars and the snails of one part of the world should be originally from another part wherefore be astonished, then, that there should be in America some kinds of animals, and some races of men like our own?"‡‡ Voltaire has written upon the subject in a manner that will always be attracting, however much or little credence may be allowed to what he has written. We will, therefore, extract an entire article wherein he engages more professedly upon the question than in other parts of his works, in which he has rather incidentally spoken upon it. The chapter is as follows: §§"Since many fail not to make systems upon the manner in which America has been peopled, it is left only for us to say, that he who created flies in those regions, created man there also. However pleasant it may be to dispute, it cannot be denied that the Supreme Being, who lives in all nature, |||| has created about the 48° two-legged animals without feathers, the color of whose skin is a mixture of white and carnation, with long beards approaching to red; about the line, in Africa and its islands, negroes without beards; and "Pseudodoxia Epidemica: or Inquiries into very many Received Tenents, and commonly received Truths; together with the RELIGIO MEDICI. By Thomas Brown, Kt. M. D." Page 373, 6 edition, 4to. London, 1672. After speaking of the effect of the climate of the old world in producing man and other animals in perfection, he adds, "Combien, au contraire, la nature paroît avoir négligé nouveau mond! Les hommes y sont moins forts, moins courageux; sans barbe et sans poil," &c.-Histoire Philos. des deux Indes, viii. 210. Ed. Geneva, 1781. 12 vols. 8vo. Voltaire does not say quite as much, but says this:-"La nature enfin avait donné aux Americanes beaucoup moins d'industrie qu'aux hommes de l'ancien monde. Toutes ces causes ensemble ont pu nuire beaucoup à la population.”—[Œuvres, iv. 19.] This is, however, only in reference to the Indians. Perthensis, i. 637. (Art. AMER. § 38.) In his Notes on Virginia, Quer. vii. Samuel Smith, who published a history of New Jersey, in 1765, printed at Burlington. ** See Hist. N. J. 8. + Essai sur les Moeurs et l'Esprit des Nations. (Œuvres, iv. 18.) tt Ibid. 708. 66 Euvres, t. vii. 197, 198. Will the reader of this call Voltaire an atheist ? CHAP. II.] ON THE ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS. 13 in the same latitude, other negroes with beards, some of them having wool and some hair on their heads; and among them other animals quite white, having neither hair nor wool, but a kind of white silk. It does not very clearly appear what should have prevented God from placing on another continent animals of the same species, of a copper color, in the same latitude in which, in Africa and Asia, they are found black; or even from making them without beards in the very same latitude in which others possess them. To what lengths are we carried by the rage for systems joined with the tyranny of prejudice! We see these animals; it is agreed that God has had the power to place them where they are; yet it is not agreed that he has so placed them. The same persons who readily admit that the beavers of Canada are of Canadian origin, assert that the men must have come there in boats, and that Mexico must have been peopled by some of the descendants of Magog. As well might it be said, that, if there be men in the moon, they must have been taken there by Astolpho on his hippogriff, when he went to fetch Roland's senses, which were corked up in a bottle. If America had been discovered in his time, and there had then been men in Europe systematic enough to have advanced, with the Jesuit Lafitau,* that the Caribbees descended from the inhabitants of Caria, and the Hurons from the Jews, he would have done well to have brought back the bottle containing the wits of these reasoners, which he would doubtless have found in the moon, along with those of Angelica's lover. The first thing done when an inhabited island is discovered in the Indian Ocean, or in the South Sea, is to inquire, Whence came these people? but as for the trees and the tortoises, they are, without any hesitation, pronounced to be indigenous; as if it were more difficult for nature to make men than to make tortoises. One thing, however, which seems to countenance this system, is, that there is scarcely an island in the eastern or western ocean, which does not contain jugglers, quacks, knaves, and fools. This, it is probable, gave rise to the opinion, that these animals are of the same race with ourselves." Some account of what the Indians themselves have said upon the subject of their origin may be very naturally looked for in this place. Their notions in this respect can no more be relied upon than the fabled stories of the gods in ancient mythology. Indeed, their accounts of primitive inhabitants do not agree beyond their own neighborhood, and often disagree with themselves at different times. Some say their ancestors came from the north, others from the north-west, others from the east, and others from the west; some from the regions of the air, and some from under the earth. Hence to raise any theory upon any thing coming from them upon the subject, would show only that the theorist himself was as ignorant as his informants. We might as well ask the forest trees how they came planted upon the soil in which they grow. Not that the Indians are unintelligent in other affairs, any further than the necessary consequence growing out of their situation implies; nor are they less so than many who have written upon their history. "In one grave maxim let us all agree- Paine's RULING PASSION. The different notions of the Indians will be best gathered from their lives in their proper places in the following work. Dr. S. L. Mitchill, of New York, a man who wrote learnedly, if not wisely, on almost every subject, has, in his opinion, like hundreds before him, set the great question, How was America peopled? at rest. He has no doubt but the Indians, in the first place, are of the same color originally as the north-eastern nations of Asia, and hence sprung from them. What time he settles them in the country he does not tell us, but gets them into Greenland about the year 8 or 900. Thinks he saw the Scandinavians as far as the shores of the St. Lawrence, but what time this was he does not say. He must of course make * He wrote a history of the savages of America, and maintained that the Caribbee language was radically Hebrew. |